NASA Odyssey: Longest-serving Mars spacecraft relocated to aid new observations

No NASA Mars orbiter has been in a position to observe morning daylight on Mars since the twin Viking orbiters of the 1970s. 

Credit: NASA/JPL

NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft has tweaked its orbit to help scientists make the first systematic observations of how morning fogs, clouds and surface frost develop in different seasons on the Red Planet.

The maneuver took place Tuesday, Feb. 11. Odyssey team engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver, designed the gentle move to accelerate Odyssey's drift toward a morning-daylight orbit.

The desired change will occur gradually until the intended orbit geometry is reached in November 2015 and another maneuver halts the drift.

The change will enable observation of changing ground temperatures after sunrise and after sunset in thousands of places on Mars.

Those observations could yield insight about the composition of the ground and about temperature-driven processes, such as warm-season flows observed on some slopes, and geysers fed by spring thawing of carbon-dioxide ice near Mars' poles.

Jeffrey Plaut

"We're teaching an old spacecraft new tricks," said Odyssey Project Scientist Jeffrey Plaut of JPL.

"Odyssey will be in position to see Mars in a more different light from ever before."

Neither Odyssey, nor any other NASA Mars orbiter since the 1970s, has flown an orbital pattern with a view of the ground in morning daylight.

Earlier NASA orbiters and the European Space Agency's (ESA) Mars Express orbiter have provided some tantalizing views of morning mists on Mars, but have concentrated on afternoon observation times when views of the surface are less hazy.

Odyssey was launched in 2001 and began its science mission 12 years ago this month. It is the longest-working spacecraft ever sent to Mars.

NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft passes above Mars' south pole in this artist's concept. The spacecraft has been orbiting Mars since October 24, 2001. Credit: NASA/JPL

Odyssey completed Tuesday's maneuver at 12:03 p.m. PST (3:03 p.m. EST).

It used four thrusters, each providing about 5 pounds (22 newtons) of force for a 29-second burn.

David Lehman

"This veteran spacecraft performed exactly as planned," said Odyssey Project Manager David Lehman of JPL.

Odyssey flies in an orbit nearly over the poles and synchronized with the sun.

The south-to-north leg of the orbit provided an advantage for the orbiter's Gamma Ray Spectrometer (GRS) to have its cooling equipment pointed away from the sun.

The spectrometer checked for evidence of water near the Martian surface.

It has made important discoveries of how widely water ice—detected as hydrogen— and other elements are distributed on Mars.

Sea Launch puts Intelsat 21 TV satellite into orbit

Intelsat 21, a satellite that will provide television communication services, was put into orbit on Sunday August 19 by a Zenit-3SL rocket which blasted off from a floating platform in the Pacific Ocean provided by commercial satellite launcher Sea Launch.

The rocket lifted off from the Launch Platform Odyssey, a modified oil drilling platform positioned at the Equator in the Pacific Ocean.

The launch took place at 6.55 am Sunday August 19 (UTC/GMT).

The satellite reached geosynchronous transfer orbit within 30 minutes of launch and within 55 minutes initial data was received from the satellite.

Boeing Satellite Systems, which built the satellite for Intelsat, confirmed that it was functioning normally.

The satellite will be moved next into geostationary orbit where it will have a permanent position locked above a fixed point on the Earth.

The Intelsat 21 satellite has been built to operate for 18 or more years and replaces the Intelsat 9 communications satellite.

Intelsat 21, which will enter service later this year, will provide C-band services for North America, South America and Europe, and Ku-band services for North America, the Caribbean, Brazil, Europe and Western Africa. This is the second of four satellites built by Boeing for Intelsat.

Kjell Karlsen, president of Sea Launch AG, said of the launch: "We appreciate the trust and confidence that Intelsat has placed in the Sea Launch system and are thrilled to have successfully launched the Intelsat 21 satellite.

This is our third mission for Intelsat in the past 11 months, which demonstrates the commitment to schedule and mission assurance by Sea Launch."

Sea Launch's Odyssey Launch Platform and Zenit-3SL rocket. Credit: Sea Launch

Sea Launch AG, which has headquarters in Bern, Switzerland, was set up 1995 to offer satellite launches from a platform in the sea.

The company carried out its first launch of a demonstration payload in March 1999.

Since its demonstration launch the company has had carried out 33 launches, including today's.

Themis on MARS Odyssey captures spectacular Mars map ever

A camera aboard NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft has helped develop the most accurate global Martian map ever.

Researchers and the public can access the map via several websites and explore and survey the entire surface of the Red Planet.

The map was constructed using nearly 21,000 images from the Thermal Emission Imaging System, or THEMIS, a multi-band infrared camera on Odyssey. Researchers at Arizona State University's Mars Space Flight Facility in Tempe, in collaboration with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., have been compiling the map since THEMIS observations began eight years ago.

The pictures have been smoothed, matched, blended and cartographically controlled to make a giant mosaic. Users can pan around images and zoom into them.

At full zoom, the smallest surface details are 100 meters (330 feet) wide. While portions of Mars have been mapped at higher resolution, this map provides the most accurate view so far of the entire planet.

The new map is available at: http://www.mars.asu.edu/maps/?layer=thm_dayir_100m_v11.

NASA MARS: Odyssey Orbiter goes into Safe Standby Mode

NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter put itself into a safe standby mode on Saturday, Nov. 28, and the team operating the spacecraft has begun implementing careful steps designed to resume Odyssey's science and relay operations within about a week.

Engineers have diagnosed the cause of the Nov. 28 event as the spacecraft's proper response to a memory error with a known source. The likely cause is an upset in the orbiter's "memory error external bus," as was the case with a similar event in June 2008.

In safe mode over the weekend, Odyssey remained in communication with ground controllers and maintained healthy temperatures and power. To clear the memory error, the team commanded Odyssey today to perform a cold reboot of the orbiter's onboard computer. The spacecraft reported that the reboot had been completed successfully.

"This event is a type we have seen before, so we have a known and tested path to resuming normal operations," said Odyssey Project Manager Philip Varghese of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Odyssey has been orbiting Mars since 2001. In addition to its own major scientific discoveries and continuing studies of the planet, the Odyssey mission has played important roles in supporting the missions of the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity and the Phoenix Mars Lander.

Until Odyssey is available again as a communications relay, Spirit and Opportunity will be operating with direct communications to and from Earth.