spacetoday.net: MRO deploys radar antenna

Posted: Thu, Sep 21, 2006, 8:12 AM ET (1212 GMT)
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter illustration (NASA/JPL)

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spacecraft has successfully deployed the antenna for an Italian radar system on the spacecraft that will be used to look for evidence of subsurface water. The antenna for the Shallow Subsurface Radar (SHARAD) deployed over the weekend, its twin arms unfurling to their full length of five meters each, and the radar received its first echo on Monday. SHARAD will be used by scientists to probe layers just below the surface of Mars, looking for potential layers of water ice. The radar will complement a similar instrument on ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, which has been in orbit since late 2003; the two operate on different frequencies and thus have different resolutions and ground-penetrating capabilities. SHARAD was built Alcatel Alenia Space for the Italian Space Agency, with Northrop Grumman providing the antenna.