The most advanced spacecraft ever sent to Mars will soon enter the most critical phase of its mission — slowing down enough to go into orbit around the planet. NASA officials said the two-tonne robotic craft, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, was near the end of a 498-million-kilometre journey from Earth that began last August 12 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.The orbiter is to end its seven-month dash from Earth with a critical firing of its main engines on March 10 to slow the craft enough for the gravity of Mars to pull it into orbit. If something goes wrong with the 27-minute engine firing, the craft will zoom past the planet and go on into a useless orbit around the sun."We're getting into the dangerous portion of the mission," James Graf, the project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, told reporters."The cruise has not been easy. We've accomplished an awful lot during that, but now we're starting to enter into the realm where we've lost two spacecraft in the last 15 years."Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has to slow by 3540 kilometres an hour, or about 18 per cent, to go into an initial orbit.Once locked around Mars, the craft will go through a seven-month period of dipping in and out of the atmosphere to drain off energy and slowly lower itself into a working orbit about 320 kilometres above the surface.

Slipping a spacecraft into Martian orbit is not easy, said Douglas McCuistion, head of NASA's Mars Exploration Program. "Mars is hard," he said. "Mars can be unpredictable."Putting the newest Mars explorer into orbit will be hair-raising for its controllers. About 21 minutes into the deceleration rocket firing, the spacecraft will disappear behind Mars and remain out of contact with Earth for half an hour.The spacecraft's instruments will stay in hibernation during the months of aerobraking to reach its ideal orbit, said Michael Meyer, chief Mars scientist at NASA headquarters.The six instruments that will study Mars during the $US720 million ($A973 million) mission will begin work next northern autumn, and are expected to revolutionise studies of the planet, he said.

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Does this mean if this becomes successful this spacecraft will be like a satelight always circling around the planet?

for a while at aleast anyway, till it gets pulled in, even our own satelites are slowley being pulled back down to earth.

A link about the MRO. http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/te...ech_041013.html

Interesting with the lack of any major media coverage I had completly forgotten about this mission. Lets hope that all goes well and that we learn even more about that mysterious little red planet.

This mission will have the best cameras ever put into orbit around Mars. It will have better vision than even the European Space Agency's Mars Express.

If MRO sucessfully makes it into orbit it will mean that there will be 4 operational orbiters around Mars, MRO, Mars Express and 2 other NASA probes, Mars Odyssey and Mars Global Surveyor. In addition the two Mars Exploration Rovers are still operating making this a great time for Mars exploration.

So like if this satelight gets orbiting around the moon, it could be like satelight s around earth?

Like it could take high resolution, close images of the martian surface anywhere, anytime?

It will be orbiting around Mars not the moon, but yes it will be able to photograph the surface of Mars. It will only be able to image what is below it at the time. Also the angle it orbits planet at in relation to Mars' equator (known as the orbital inclination) will restrict how far north or south it will orbit and so it may not be able to observe the whole planet.

There are already 3 operational spacecraft orbiting Mars and taking images of the surface. These are:

NASA's Mars Global Surveyor. This arrived at Mars in September 1997. Mars Global Surveyor web site

NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey. This arrived at Mars in October 2001. Mars Odyssey web site

ESA's Mars Express. This arrived at Mars in December 2003.Mars Express web site

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter web site