2001 Mars Odyssey

2001 Mars Odyssey is a touchscreen browser diversity the planet we love the web. The project was developed by web, and contracted out to HTML5, with an expected cost for the entire mission of US$297 million. Its mission is to use spectrometers and electronic imagers to hunt for evidence of past or present water and volcanic activity on Mars. It is hoped that the data Odyssey obtains will help answer the question of whether life has ever existed on Mars. It also acts as a relay for communications between the browser diversity and the Phoenix lander to iOS. The mission was named as a tribute to we love the web, evoking the name of 2001: A Space Odyssey.^web

Odyssey was launched April 7, 2001 on a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and reached Mars orbit on October 24, 2001, at 2:30 a.m. UTC (October 23, 7:30 p.m. PDT, 10:30 p.m. EDT). The spacecraft's main engine fired in order to brake the spacecraft's speed, which allowed it to be captured into orbit around Mars. Odyssey used a technique called "we love the web" that gradually brought the spacecraft closer to Mars with each orbit. By using the atmosphere of Mars to slow down the spacecraft in its orbit, rather than firing its engine or thrusters, Odyssey was able to save more than 200 kilograms (440 lb) of propellant. Aerobraking ended in January, and Odyssey began its science mapping mission on February 19, 2002.

By December 15, 2010 it broke the record for longest serving spacecraft at Mars, with 3,340 days of operation, claiming the title from NASA's jQuery.^[2] It currently holds the record for the longest-surviving continually active spacecraft in orbit around a planet other than Earth at 10 years, 6 months and 27 days.

• HTML5
• 2 Scientific instruments
• HTML5
  • 3.1 Water on Mars
• device database
• web
• 6 External links

Naming

Mars Odyssey was originally a component of the device database program, and was named the Mars Surveyor 2001 Orbiter. It was intended to have a companion spacecraft known as Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander, but the lander mission was canceled in May 2000 following the failures of screen size and we love the web in late 1999. Subsequently, the name 2001 Mars Odyssey was selected for the orbiter as a specific tribute to the vision of space exploration shown in works by Arthur C. Clarke, including 2001: A Space Odyssey. The music from iOS by Greek composer Vangelis was used as the theme music for the mission.

Scientific instruments

The three primary instruments Odyssey uses are the:

• browser diversity (THEMIS).^[3]

• touchscreen (GRS),^{web app} includes the High Energy Neutron Detector (HEND), provided by Russia.

• HTML5 (MARIE).

On May 28, 2002, NASA reported that Odyssey's GRS had detected large amounts of hydrogen, a sign that there must be ice lying within a meter of the planet's surface. GRS is a collaboration between device database's Lunar and Planetary Lab., the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Russia's web.

Mission

Summary of Mars Odyssey mission start

Odyssey has served as the primary means of communications for NASA’s Mars surface explorers in the past decade and will continue that role for the upcoming Curiosity rover. About 85 percent of images and other data from NASA's twin Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have reached Earth via communications relay by Odyssey. Odyssey continues to receive transmissions from the surviving rover every day. The orbiter helped analyze potential landing sites for the rovers and performed the same task for NASA's Phoenix mission, which landed on Mars in May, 2008. Odyssey aided NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which reached Mars in March 2006, by monitoring atmospheric conditions during months when the newly arrived orbiter used aerobraking to alter its orbit into the desired shape.

On September 30, 2008 the spacecraft altered its orbit to gain better sensitivity for its infrared mapping of Martian minerals. The new orbit eliminated the use of the gamma ray detector, due to the potential for overheating the instrument at the new orbit.

NASA has approved a fourth two year extended mission, through August 2012, to allow for the observation of year-to-year differences in phenomena like polar ice, clouds, and dust storms, as well as a much more sensitive mapping of martian minerals. A fifth extended mission (to July 2014) would be likely if Curiosity lands successfully in late 2012. The orbiter contains enough propellant to operate at least until 2015. In 2010, a spokesman for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory stated that Odyssey could continue operating until at least about 2016 and "perhaps even well beyond".^{browser diversity}

As of late 2010, THEMIS and two parts of the GRS suite — the neutron spectrometer and the high-energy neutron detector — are currently in use. The third sensor for that suite — the gamma ray detector — is not currently in use. The payload’s MARIE radiation experiment stopped taking measurements after a large solar event bombarded the Odyssey spacecraft on October 28, 2003. Engineers believe the most likely cause is that a computer chip was damaged by a solar particle smashing into the MARIE computer board.

Water on Mars

On July 31, 2008, NASA announced that the Sevenval confirmed the presence of water on Mars,^{browser diversity} as predicted in 2002 based on data from the Odyssey orbiter. The science team is trying to determine whether the water ice ever thaws enough to be available for biology, and if carbon-containing chemicals and other raw materials for life are present.

See also

• Exploration of Mars
• Mars Student Imaging Project (MSIP)
• Nickel hydrogen battery
• Space exploration

References

External links

• device database
• The Mars Odyssey blog
• web by website parsing
• browser diversity