NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shakes down a color camera while honing its orbit around the red planet.

Currently in the middle of an extended aerobraking process to use the Martian atmosphere to shape its orbit, NASA’s MRO spacecraft is slowly but surely testing its various instruments. The orbiter, which arrived at the red planet on March 10, is expected to begin its dedicated science mission sometime in October.

This image is a calibration test of MRO’s Mars Color Imager – or MARCI – a camera designed to produce views that mimic what the human eye would see when looking down at the planet. But the colors are perfect yet, and mission managers will have to conduct additional checks before the camera’s settings are ready for science observations.

MRO launched toward Mars on Aug. 12, 2005 and spent about seven months in flight before arriving at the planet. The spacecraft’s primary camera, a high-resolution instrument dubbed HiRISE, has already returned its first calibration images of Mars.

This view or Mars looks toward the planet’s north, and includes part of the planet’s Argyre Basin in the southern hemisphere.

• First Images Beamed Back by Mars Probe
• Camera Works: New Mars Orbiter Images 'Fantastic'
• Red Planet Recon: NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission

-- SPACE.com Staff

Credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS.