PASADENA, Calif. (AP) NASA has extended the mission of the
Mars Odyssey orbiter which has been studying and mapping the Red
Planet since early 2002 as well as serving as a relay for data from
the surface rovers Spirit and Opportunity.
Odyssey's primary mission, which cost $297 million, ended
Tuesday. The $35 million extension will fund operations through
September 2006, and NASA noted that the spacecraft has enough fuel
left to operate through the rest of the decade and the following
decade at the current rate of consumption.
``Odyssey has accomplished all of its mission-success
criteria,'' said Philip Varghese, Odyssey project manager at Jet
Propulsion Laboratory.
The spacecraft's findings include evidence of abundant frozen
water under the surface of the south polar region, a widespread
mineral indicating the martian environment has been quite dry, and
suggestions that Mars is undergoing climate change. Its instruments
have also made the most detailed maps of Mars.
Odyssey also carried the first experiment sent to Mars in
preparation for manned missions. It found that radiation levels
around the planet, from solar flares and cosmic rays, are two to
three times higher than around Earth. A solar flare knocked out the
radiation detector in 2003.
The orbiter also helped planners analyze landing sites for the
twin rovers that set down on the planet in January and since then
has relayed about 85 percent of images and other data sent by the
robot vehicles.
Odyssey is now being used to analyze sites for another mission
scheduled to land on Mars in 2008 and is monitoring the planet's
atmosphere to plan for the arrival of an orbiter in 2006. That
craft will use dips into the atmosphere, a process called
aerobraking, to adjust its orbit.
Odyssey was launched April 7, 2001, and reached Mars on Oct. 23,
2001. It also used aerobraking to modify its orbit around the
planet.
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On the Net: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/odyssey
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)