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Mars Odyssey Orbiter Repositioned to Observe Possible Water Processes on Martian Surface
http://www.americaspace.com/?p=52523
Mars Odyssey Orbiter Repositioned to Observe Possible Water Processes on Martian Surface
By Mike Killian
Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, CA - in cooperation with Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver, CO – recently fired up the thrusters on the space agency’s longest-serving Mars explorer in an attempt to study the planet’s surface during Martian dawn. Mars Odyssey, which has been exploring the Red Planet since 2002, is now set up for an orbit which will – for the first time in its 12 years of service – give researchers back on Earth a chance to observe possible water processes happening on the ground in morning daylight; something no NASA Mars orbiter has had a chance to do since the twin Viking orbiters in the 1970′s.
“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.”
The gentle maneuver, which took place on Feb. 11 courtesy of a 29-second burn from four thrusters on the spacecraft, will accelerate Odyssey’s drift toward a morning-daylight orbit to give scientists the first detailed observations of the Martian surface in the hours around sunrise. Other orbiters, from both NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), have observed morning mists, fogs, clouds and surface frost develop seasonally on the Red Planet, but so far have concentrated on afternoon observation times when views of the surface are less hazy.
<snip>
Putting Odyssey into an orbit for morning observations will (hopefully) yield insight about the composition of the ground and about temperature-driven processes – such as water flows and geysers fed by spring thawing of carbon-dioxide ice near Mars’ poles.
<snip>
Mars Odyssey Orbiter Repositioned to Observe Possible Water Processes on Martian Surface
By Mike Killian
Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, CA - in cooperation with Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver, CO – recently fired up the thrusters on the space agency’s longest-serving Mars explorer in an attempt to study the planet’s surface during Martian dawn. Mars Odyssey, which has been exploring the Red Planet since 2002, is now set up for an orbit which will – for the first time in its 12 years of service – give researchers back on Earth a chance to observe possible water processes happening on the ground in morning daylight; something no NASA Mars orbiter has had a chance to do since the twin Viking orbiters in the 1970′s.
“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.”
The gentle maneuver, which took place on Feb. 11 courtesy of a 29-second burn from four thrusters on the spacecraft, will accelerate Odyssey’s drift toward a morning-daylight orbit to give scientists the first detailed observations of the Martian surface in the hours around sunrise. Other orbiters, from both NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), have observed morning mists, fogs, clouds and surface frost develop seasonally on the Red Planet, but so far have concentrated on afternoon observation times when views of the surface are less hazy.
<snip>
Putting Odyssey into an orbit for morning observations will (hopefully) yield insight about the composition of the ground and about temperature-driven processes – such as water flows and geysers fed by spring thawing of carbon-dioxide ice near Mars’ poles.
<snip>