The MRO (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) has arrived safely to the Red Planet and is firing its rocket thrusters in its most dangerous and crucial part of the next two year mission. The purpose of the thrusters is to cause the craft to take several dips into Mar’s upper atmosphere causing an aerobraking procedure that that will allow the craft to stablize its orbit. This will take about 6-months to accomplish.

Once the orbit is successfully achieved the MRO will begin its real $750 million job of taking atmospheric samples from high altitude, looking out for future unmanned and manned landing sites and, most importantly, the complete mapping of the Mars surface.

NASA scientists are thrilled with the mission’s success up to this point but are closely keeping a lookout on the MRO now that it enters its most dangereous phase of the mission. When the mapping and reconnaissance is in full swing, pictues showing details as close as one meter in size will be sent back to NASA from the orbing MRO.

The first images from the craft were sent about a week ago as it approached Mars for orbit preparation.