Attitude control performance for MRO aerobraking and the initial science phase

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) arrived at the Red Planet on March 10, 2006. Following a successful Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI) maneuver, the operations team guided the spacecraft through six months of aerobraking, thereby achieving the final science orbit. MRO is equipped with a suite of six scientific instruments designed to provide unprecedented data return from Mars, including surface. image resolution down to 30 cm. Over the first Mars year, the spacecraft is expected to return over 26 Tbits of data. In this paper, we present MRO's significant mission events to date from an attitude control perspective. These events include the Mars Orbit Insertion maneuver, an improved, more autonomous aerobraking approach, and transition to the science-collection configuration (including deployment of two 5-m radar antenna booms). Initial science imaging. results are presented demonstrating MRO's pointing accuracy and stability performance. Several off-nominal conditions and their impacts are also discussed, including Safe Mode entries during aerobraking and two hardware anomalies within the telecom subsystem.