{"id":217516,"date":"2025-07-10T01:23:01","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T06:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/nasa-flips-a-mars-orbiter-upside-down-and-discovers-a-hidden-world"},"modified":"2025-07-10T01:23:01","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T06:23:01","slug":"nasa-flips-a-mars-orbiter-upside-down-and-discovers-a-hidden-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/nasa-flips-a-mars-orbiter-upside-down-and-discovers-a-hidden-world","title":{"rendered":"NASA Flips a Mars Orbiter Upside Down \u2014 And Discovers a Hidden World"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Dmiv0SLKumE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>NASA\u2019s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is a long-running spacecraft mission dedicated to studying the Red Planet from orbit. Launched in 2005 and managed by NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California for the agency\u2019s Science Mission Directorate, MRO is part of NASA\u2019s broader Mars Exploration Program. It plays a key role in analyzing Mars\u2019 surface, atmosphere, and subsurface using a suite of advanced instruments.<\/p>\n<p>One of MRO\u2019s standout tools is SHARAD (Shallow Radar), which probes beneath the Martian surface to detect features like ice and rock layers. Provided by the Italian Space Agency and operated by Sapienza University of Rome, SHARAD is a collaborative effort analyzed by a joint U.S.-Italian science team, with U.S. participation led by the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona.<\/p>\n<p>Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, built the orbiter and continues to support its operations, ensuring the spacecraft\u2019s longevity and scientific productivity well into its second decade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NASA\u2019s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is a long-running spacecraft mission dedicated to studying the Red Planet from orbit. Launched in 2005 and managed by NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California for the agency\u2019s Science Mission Directorate, MRO is part of NASA\u2019s broader Mars Exploration Program. It plays a key role in analyzing Mars\u2019 [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[269],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-217516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-extension"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217516\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}