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Challenges of Getting to Mars: Dip and Drag

April 03, 2006

With the spacecraft safely captured into orbit, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter team transitions to the next critical phase -- aerobraking. Learn how engineers slow the spacecraft and precisely shape its orbit using the dynamic atmosphere of Mars.

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Countdown Nears: Final Tests
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Countdown Nears: Final Tests
Countdown Nears: Final Tests
This graph shows a spectrum recorded by the Chemistry and Camera instrument (ChemCam) in NASA's Curiosity Mars rover.
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This graph shows a spectrum recorded by the Chemistry and Camera instrument (ChemCam) in NASA's Curiosity Mars rover.
ChemCam Spectrum from Martian Rock Target 'Ithaca'
This is a close-up of the area in the vicinity of the Pathfinder landing site. Major features are named. The white box outlines the area of the image, where hardware is seen.
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This is a close-up image of the area in the vicinity of the Pathfinder landing site
Landing Site Region
Unfrozen brine in cryopegs and fracture networks provides habitats for the survival and growth of organisms both within and under frozen rocky materials on Earth and, by analogy, could provide habi...
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Unfrozen brine in cryopegs and fracture networks provides habitats for the survival and growth of organisms both within and under frozen rocky materials on Earth and, by analogy, could provide habitats on Mars.
Plausible Martian Habitats
Eberswalde Crater was one of the four final landing sites considered for the MSL rover. A channel leads into the crater and the lithified remains of a delta, a fan-like feature formed when sediment...
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A channel leads into the crater and the lithified remains of a delta, a fan-like feature formed when sediment-laden water flows from a river into a larger body of water such as a lake.
Eberswalde Delta (3-D)
This map shows the route driven by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity through the 43rd Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission on Mars (Sept. 19, 2012).
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This map shows the route driven by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity through the 43rd Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission on Mars (Sept. 19, 2012).
Curiosity Traverse Map Through Sol 43
This map shows the footprints of images taken by the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as part of advance analysis of the area where NASA's InSight mission will land in 2018. The ...
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This map shows the footprints of images taken by the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as part of advance analysis of the area where NASA's InSight mission will land in 2018. The final planned image of the set will fill in the yellow-outlined rectangle on March 30, 2017.
Advance Inspection of NASA's Next Mars Landing Site
From one side of the country to the other, through a snowstorm and other delays, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter made its way to Kennedy Space Center in Florida for final processing and rehearsals ...
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Challenges of Getting to Mars: Getting to the Launch Pad
Challenges of Getting to Mars: Getting to the Launch Pad
Valleys much younger than well-known ancient valley networks on Mars are evident near the informally named "Heart Lake" on Mars. This map presents color-coded topographical information overlaid ont...
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Valleys much younger than well-known ancient valley networks on Mars are evident near the informally named "Heart Lake" on Mars. This map presents color-coded topographical information overlaid onto a photo mosaic. Lower elevations are indicated with white and purple; higher elevations, yellow.
Landscape of Former Lakes and Streams on Northern Mars
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows channels to the southeast of Hale crater on southern Mars. Taken by the orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera...
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Channels from Hale Crater
Channels from Hale Crater
This composite graphic illustrates the use of the Shallow Radar instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for mapping underground ice-rich layers of the north polar layered terrain on Mars.
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This composite graphic illustrates the use of the Shallow Radar instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for mapping underground ice-rich layers of the north polar layered terrain on Mars.
Radar Mapping of Icy Layers Under Mars' North Pole
Dunes are often found on crater floors. In the winter, at high northern latitudes, the terrain is covered by carbon-dioxide ice (dry ice).
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Dunes are often found on crater floors. In the winter, at high northern latitudes, the terrain is covered by carbon-dioxide ice (dry ice).
Frost-Covered Dunes in a Crater
The Global CTX Mosaic of Mars allows scientists and the public to explore the planet like never before. 
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The Global CTX Mosaic of Mars allows scientists and the public to explore the planet like never before.
CTX Mosaic Shows Geographic Locations on Mars
This graphic shows the ongoing contributions of NASA’s rovers and orbiters during a Martian dust storm that began on May 30, 2018.
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This graphic shows the ongoing contributions of NASA’s rovers and orbiters during a Martian dust storm that began on May 30, 2018.
Mars Storm Watch Observations
This image shows the floor of Ius Chasma
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This image shows the floor of Ius Chasma
Faults in Ius Chasma (3-D)
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project Manager Jim Graf shakes the hand of Andrew Dantzler, Director of NASA's Solar System Division, after a successful orbit insertion on March 10, 2006. Fuk Li, Dire...
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Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission Team Members Celebrate Orbit Insertion Success
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission Team Members Celebrate Orbit Insertion Success
Recurring slope lineae (RSL) are active flows on warm Martian slopes that might be caused by seeping water.
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Recurring slope lineae (RSL) are active flows on warm Martian slopes that might be caused by seeping water.
Seasonal Flows in the Central Mountains of Hale Crater
A dune in the northern polar region of Mars shows significant changes between two images taken on June 25, 2008 and May 21, 2010 by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
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A dune in the northern polar region of Mars shows significant changes between two images taken on June 25, 2008 and May 21, 2010 by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Movement in Martian Dune Field
The Mars Color Imager test view looks northward and includes the large Argyre Basin in Mars' southern hemisphere.
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View of Argyre Basin from the MARCI camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
View of Argyre Basin from Test of Mars Color Image
This image taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows ice sheets at Mars’ south pole. The spacecraft detected clays nearby this ice; scientists have proposed such clays are the source of rad...
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This image taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows ice sheets at Mars’ south pole. The spacecraft detected clays nearby this ice; scientists have proposed such clays are the source of radar reflections that have been previously interpreted as liquid water.
MRO Spots Clays and Ice
This image, taken with the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, shows the transition between the "Murray Formation," in which layers are poorly expressed and difficult to tra...
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This color image shows the transition between the "Murray Formation," and the hematite ridge, which is made up of continuous layers that can be traced laterally for hundreds of meters. Between both areas is a dark band of material, which are the dunes that divide Murray Ridge and Hematite Ridge.
Geological Transition
This artist's concept shows NASA's Mars orbiters lining up behind the Red Planet for their "duck and cover" maneuver to shield them fro comet dust that may result from the close flyby of comet Sidi...
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This artist's concept shows NASA's Mars orbiters lining up behind the Red Planet for their "duck and cover" maneuver to shield them fro comet dust that may result from the close flyby of comet Siding Spring (C/2013 A1) on Oct. 19, 2014.
Siding Spring Mars Spacecraft
This animation shows the position of NASA's Curiosity rover as it journeyed through "the clay-bearing unit" on Mars between May 31 and July 20, 2019. The HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance...
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This animation shows the position of NASA's Curiosity rover as it journeyed through "the clay-bearing unit" on Mars between May 31 and July 20, 2019. The HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took both images.
HiRISE Watches Curiosity Journey Across the Clay Unit
This chain of collapse pits located on the southeast flank of Alba Patera, a volcanic complex, probably formed when empty underground lava tubes collapsed.
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This chain of collapse pits located on the southeast flank of Alba Patera, a volcanic complex, probably formed when empty underground lava tubes collapsed.
Phlegethon Catena (3-D)
This map traces where NASA's Mars rover Curiosity drove between landing at a site subsequently named "Bradbury Landing," and the position reached during the mission's 123rd Martian day, or sol, (De...
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This map traces where NASA's Mars rover Curiosity drove between landing at a site subsequently named "Bradbury Landing," and the position reached during the mission's 123rd Martian day, or sol, (Dec. 10, 2012).
Curiosity Traverse Map, Sol 123

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