High-tech orbiter is NASA's next Mars mission

With the most powerful camera ever sent to another planet, five additional instruments and the capability to speedily transmit large amounts of data, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will be well equipped for its ambitious mission to broaden the current understanding of Mars, he said.

Like other Mars orbiters before it, the Reconnaissance Orbiter will survey the planet and identify potential landing sites for future Mars landers and rovers. In particular, it will examine possible touch-down locations for the Phoenix Mars Scout, a lander scheduled to launch in August 2007, and the Mars Science Laboratory, a rover mission planned to launch in Oct. 2009.

The orbiter will also use radar technology to search below the surface of the planet for ice and water.

Sounds great! Oh, but then they go and double-jinx the whole effort by letting Lockheed Martin build and launch the thing:

As a result, the launch will require more energy, and therefore a larger rocket. Therefore, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will be the first spacecraft since 1973 to use a large Atlas V launch vehicle.

Lockheed Martin Astronautics in Denver, Colorado, won the contract to build the orbiter and provide support for mission operations and has about 175 employees working on the orbiter.

It's doomed! After all, Lockheed Martin has never had a successful launch, or Mars probe, or lander, right?

Posted by T.L. James on October 18, 2004 09:32 PM