File:KSC-05-S-00257 (ksc 080805 mro smrekar8).webm

English: Pawan also has another question. Could you explain more about the experimental navigation camera and how it is different from the other cameras that the MRO is carrying? Sure. Well, the optical navigation camera, its goal is to be able to send future spacecraft, we're not actually using it for our spacecraft navigation, but it's basically testing out this technology. And its goal is to be able to look at the moons of Mars -- Phobos and Deimos -- and use the information about where the spacecraft are in orbit around Mars, to be able to pinpoint where the spacecraft is very carefully. So it basically triangulates using those moons of Mars. And so, so, for future rovers and even human exploration, they're going to want to be able to send spacecraft very precisely to a certain point on Mars. So this type of technology will be used for that purpose. It differs from our camera in a couple of ways. It's actually very similar in resolution to our context camera, but it's in a different place in the spacecraft, and as we approach Mars for that orbit insertion, that very delicate maneuver, we have to have the spacecraft in a given configuration, so all the rest of our cameras wouldn't be able to look at Mars at that time. But this camera is oriented so that it will be able to see Mars and it will be able to see the moons. It also is able to capture the images very quickly and it doesn't rely on the motion of the spacecraft to sort of pan and see where things are. It just takes that snapshot very quickly and uses it for planning navigation. It sounds like Mars is going to be our next supermodel. (laughing)