Abstract:
Orbiting Mars since March 2006, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spacecraft continues to perform valuable science
observations, provide telecommunication relay for surface assets, and characterize landing sites for future missions. Previous papers
reported on the navigation of MRO from interplanetary cruise through the end of the Primary Science Phase (PSP) in December 2008
and on maneuvers performed through November 2016. This paper highlights the navigation of MRO from January 2009 through its
50,000th orbit around Mars on March 27, 2017, an eight-year period covering the Extended Science Phase, the first three extended
missions, and a portion of the fourth extended mission which began on October 1, 2016. Since the beginning of the PSP in November
2006, MRO’s navigation performance has continued to exceed expectations. Over that period of time, the mission has returned over
300 terabytes of data.
