Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter: The First Months

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) was launched in 2005 to search for evidence that water persisted on the surface of Mars for a long period of time. While other Mars missions have shown that water flowed across the surface in Mars' history, it remains a mystery whether liquid water existed long enough to provide a habitat for life. After a year’s cruise and aerobraking to reach its science orbit in September 2006, the MRO has begun to study the history of water on Mars with a suite of high-resolution observing cameras, spectrometers and navigational instruments. In this lecture, the MRO team describe their initial findings.