NASA | JPL-Caltech | Odyssey | 2015 Jun 19
[img3="Gale Crater, home to NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, shows a new face in this imageNASA'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.
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.
(Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona State University)"]http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/ima ... 674_ip.jpg[/img3][hr][/hr]
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. ...
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 "line" encircling Mars that 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. ...
ASU Mars camera makes 60,000 orbits of Red Planet
Arizona State University | 2015 Jun 19
Next week, a visual and infrared camera designed at Arizona State University will pass 60,000 orbits of the Red Planet.
It is carried on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter, the longest-operating spacecraft from any nation at Mars. The long run has allowed the camera to take nearly 400,000 images, enabling scientists to map much of the planet's surface.
The camera – the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS), which operates in five visual and nine infrared (heat-sensitive) "colors" – was designed by ASU professor Philip Christensen, the instrument's principal investigator. ...