Mars Recon Orbiter Nearing Mars Orbit

DarkNemesis618 writes "The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, launched 12 August 2005, has nearly completed its 7 month journey to the Red Planet. At 9:24 pm GMT, the MRO is scheduled to fire its thrusters to slow it down enough to enter Mars orbit. NASA scientists are concerned about this final step for the orbiter as Mars has a history of 'swallowing' probes, orbiters, and landers sent to the Red Planet. What makes it more difficult is the delay time between NASA computers on earth and computers on board the orbiter. There is about a 12 minute delay between when data is sent from Earth to the time the orbiter's receivers pick it up, and vice versa. Because of this, onboard computers will handle the burn which adds to the risk."

Lag!

[Nosklo]

There is about a 12 minute delay between when data is sent

12 minutes!! That's a little more than the lag I got in any game I've ever played, including MUDs by dialup!!
And I live in a third world poor country!!

I think NASA should hire 3rd world old gamers, at least they are used to the lag...

Late Breaking News:

[TripMaster Monkey]

Despair gave way to cautious optimism today across the community as K'Breel, Speaker for the most Illustrious Council of Elders, delivered a statement. The statement was in response to scattered reports that the disgusting inhabitants of the evil blue planet were at last feeling the awful toll of war.

Referring to the intercepted communications from the sinister blue planet, which characterized our fair world as 'unpredictable', made references to our past triumphs as our world 'swallowing' their devices of terror, and admonishing their leaders not to become 'overconfident' in their dealings with us, K'Breel waxed poetic on the Speaking Dais, amid much gelsac-swelling:

"Gentle Citizens, today I stand before you as qurilly as a youngling in the knowledge that the hideous inhabitants of the evil blue planet are at last feeling the awful reality of what it is to make war against the Community. Even now their debased leaders are faced with the inevitablity of defeat! Rejoice with me, pod-mates! This is the turning point!"

When several of the attending citizens failed to immediately make merry, K'breel denounced them as traitors and ordered their gelsacs punctured on the spot.

Isn't there something missing from that story?

[Expert Determination]

Isn't it supposed to say how this probe might discover signs of alien life like every other story about space in the last decade? Leaving that out is like leaving out the period at the end of a sentence.

Slashdotting

[moehoward]

The 12 minute delay is due to the Slashdot Effect. Don't buy any of this so-called "speed of light" crap. At least the bandwidth is holding up this time. Most of the last several probes could not handle the Slashdotting and are still down. Even the article mentions this.

Re:Lag!

[podperson]

It's just lucky for NASA that there's no difference between US/Imperial and metric time, or that might be a source of problems in itself.

Re:Lag!

[Kaellenn]

Apparently Blizzard set up their link for them--12 minute lag during the first 3 months, but they'll credit nasa with a couple of days online time to make up the difference.

Time to break out the Metric conversion charts!!

[The_REAL_DZA]

Sorry, NASA, I really am a fan but I just couldn't resist.

Just rename it...

[jlowery]

If the Rumsfield can keep mutating the name of the War on Terror to the Struggle for Freedom (and now the Long War), just rename the Mars Orbiter the Mars Meteor and call it a day.

I Only Hope...

[Scarletdown]

I only hope that his time around, the probe will finally send back high resolution images of some of those hot Martian babes, like Dejah Thoris or Tara.

Communication Intercepted From Mars:

[Black Copter Control]

General: Be careful.. Half of these things have gotten away on us.
Lieutenant: Don't worry. It was Firtz that missed those other two. I got the beagle. I'll get this one too.

Re:Late Breaking News:

[Anonymous Coward]

unsubscribe

MRO command log...

[Anonymous Coward]

MRO cmd:> set engine burn -t 27.0

  Engine burn duration set to: 27 minutes

MRO cmd:> start engine burn -now

  Begin engine burn sequence: Are you sure? (y/N): y

  Have you calculated for correct distance in meters? (y/N): y

  Are you sure? (y/N): y

  Really sure? (y/N): y

  Remember the others we buried? Sure you want to do this? (y/N): y

OK here goes nothing! Hold your breath!

Executing command sequence...

PROGRESS: 15%

Re:Isn't there something missing from that story?

[c6gunner]

Haven't you been paying attention? It's Saturn's moon that has life now! Life on Mars is soooo last year.

Re:Late Breaking News:

[bobcat7677]

Classified: Top Top (I mean really TOP) Secret.

To: Commander in chief
From: Joint Chiefs/NASA liason
RE: Preparations for Mars invasion


With two robotic forward observers on the ground and 3 stratigic communications/spy satillites in the air, I feel we have established an excellent pre-invasion infrastructure.

Intelligence gathered so far indicates the local Mars authorities have intercepted and successfully translated some of our communications (they probably gained this ability through their analysis of the equiptment they previously captured). Given that they can understand our communications and are aware of our presence and activities, I suggest we start a propeganga campaign to further prepare them for our arrival. I recommend using our deep space communications relay equiptment to send the message: "Resistance is futile, you will be invaded and your resources added to ours."

End communication.

Re:Lag!

[coolgeek]

One of my old bosses worked at JPL. He was in charge of navigating Voyager for one of it's planetary encounters. I think it was Saturn. Aside from some other challenges with the planet being in Earth's equatorial plane during the encounter (which greatly complicated telemetry collection), they were running all their calculations on an IBM 360 in Pasadena in the middle of August. Anyone who's been around here knows it's about 90-100F outside during August, and maybe gets down to around 80-85 at night. The 360 couldn't even plot a complete series of data before it would overheat and crash. His first task was to double the RAM, and write an kernel extension that would periodically copy the running set over to the extra RAM, then dump that out to paper tape. With the most recent tape, and a custom boot loader, they could power the machine down to let it cool, then resume the series later. They had to get the shit right, on the ground, then send the instructions to the spacecraft and pray.

Now we've got these new whippersnappers complaining about a 12 minute delay and having an advanced computer in their spacecraft that can actually control the burn. Not to mention their well cooled supercomputers that crunch all their telemetry and process hundreds of possible maneuvers in a few minutes. I never thought I'd get to be like my grandfather, but I have to say these new kids sure seem a bit soft.