Gale Crater, home to NASA's Curiosity Mars rover,
shows a new face in this image made using data from the THEMIS camera on
NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter. The colors come from an image processing
method that identifies mineral differences in surface materials and
displays them in false colors.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona State University
Seen shortly after local Martian sunrise, clouds
gather in the summit pit, or caldera, of Pavonis Mons, a giant volcano
on Mars, in this image from the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS)
on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona State University
NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft will reach a major milestone June 23,
when it completes its 60,000th orbit since arriving at the Red Planet in
2001.
Named after the bestselling novel “2001: A Space Odyssey” by Arthur
C. Clarke, Odyssey began orbiting Mars almost 14 years ago, on Oct. 23,
2001. On Dec. 15, 2010, it became the longest-operating spacecraft ever
sent to Mars, and continues to hold that record today.
Odyssey, which discovered widespread water ice just beneath the
surface of the Red Planet, is still going strong today, serving as a key
communications relay for NASA's Mars rovers and making continued
contributions to planetary science.
“This orbital milestone is an opportunity to celebrate Odyssey’s many
achievements,” said Jim Green, NASA’s director of Planetary Science.
“Odyssey will continue to help lay a foundation for the first humans to
Mars in the 2030s through NASA’s Journey to Mars initiative.”
Odyssey’s orbital milestone translates into about 888 million miles
(1.43 billion kilometers) traversed by the spacecraft. In addition to
the 286 million miles (460 million kilometers) covered on its trip from
Earth to Mars, the spacecraft is a high-mileage vehicle like no other,
but remains in fine condition.
"The spacecraft is in good health, with all subsystems functional and
with enough propellant for about 10 more years," said David Lehman,
project manager for the Mars Odyssey at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
(JPL) in Pasadena, California.
Odyssey's major discoveries began in the early months of its two-year
primary mission, with gamma-ray and neutron measurements that indicated
plentiful water ice just beneath the surface at high latitudes on Mars.
The spacecraft's unexpectedly long service has enabled achievements
such as completion of the highest-resolution global map of Mars and
observation of seasonal and year-to-year changes, such as freezing and
thawing of carbon dioxide.
Through its many accomplishments, the spacecraft also has aided
NASA’s preparations for human missions to Mars by monitoring radiation
in the environment around the planet via the Mars Radiation Environment
Experiment, developed at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Odyssey currently is completing an adjustment to an orbit that will
position it to pass over Martian terrain lit by early-morning sunlight
rather than afternoon light. In its current orbit, the spacecraft always
flies near each pole and along what is called the terminator. The
terminator is a moving “line” that encircles Mars and passes through any
point on the planet’s surface at sunrise and again at sunset,
separating the portion of Mars lit by the sun from the portion
experiencing darkness, dividing day and night. The position of this line
varies by time of day and time of year.
"Upcoming observations will focus on what is happening in the Martian
atmosphere in the morning, such as clouds, hazes and fogs, and on
frosts on the surface that burn off by later in the day," said Jeffrey
Plaut, Odyssey project scientist at JPL.
The planned drift to a morning-daylight orbit began in 2012, was
accelerated in 2014, and will be completed with a maneuver in November
to lock in the orbit timing so that each pass over the equator occurs at
the same time of day.
"We have performed many orbit maneuvers over the long life of this
mission, and we will use that experience conducting the one to halt the
drift," said Steve Sanders, Odyssey spacecraft engineer at Lockheed
Martin Space Systems in Denver.
To date, Odyssey's
Thermal Emission Imaging System
(THEMIS) has yielded 208,240 images in visible-light wavelengths and
188,760 in thermal infrared wavelengths. THEMIS images are the basis for
detailed global maps and identification of some surface materials, such
as chloride salt deposits and silica-rich terrain. The infrared imaging
also indicates how quickly regions of the surface cool at night or warm
in sunlight, telling researchers how dusty or rocky the ground is.
Odyssey's three-instrument
Gamma Ray Spectrometer
(GRS) suite detected significant amount of hydrogen on the planet --
interpreted as water ice hidden beneath the surface. This discovery
prompted NASA to send its
Phoenix Mars Lander
to an arctic plain on Mars in 2008, where it examined the water ice
detected by Odyssey. The spectrometer suite also mapped global
distribution of key chemical elements, such as iron and potassium. The
University of Arizona, Tucson, headed its development. Two GRS
instruments are still active: the high-energy neutron detector from the
Russian Space Research Institute and the neutron spectrometer from Los
Alamos National Laboratories in New Mexico.
As a communications relay for NASA's Mars rovers, Odyssey has
transmitted to Earth more than 90 percent of the data received from the
Opportunity rover. Future plans for Odyssey include relay duty for NASA
and European Space Agency landers arriving on Mars in 2016.
Odyssey launched on April 7, 2001 from Cape Canaveral Air Force
Station, Florida. JPL manages the Mars Odyssey Project for NASA's
Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin built the
spacecraft and collaborates with JPL in mission operations. Arizona
State University, Tempe, provided and operates THEMIS.
For more information about Odyssey, visit:
-end-
Last Updated: July 5, 2015
Editor: Karen Northon
