 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Following a s final planned course correction, NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft is on perfect target to enter Martian orbit later this month at 7:26pm Pacific time Oct. 23 (0226 UT Oct. 24). Last Friday at 0400 Universal time Oct. 12 (9 p.m. Pacific time, Thursday, Oct. 11), Odyssey fired its small thrusters for three seconds, which changed the speed and direction of the spacecraft by 0.077 meters per second (0.17 miles per hour). "This was a tiny maneuver, designed to change our altitude at arrival by just a few kilometers. The burn went exactly as planned," said David A. Spencer, Odyssey's mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. On Monday, Oct. 15, the flight team will uplink the sequence of commands that pre-programs the spacecraft to fire its main engine and allows the spacecraft to be captured by the planet's gravity and enter orbit around Mars. Today, Odyssey is 3.5 million kilometers (2.2 million miles) from Mars, traveling at a speed of 23 kilometers per second (51,800 miles per hour) relative to the Sun. The 2001 Mars Odyssey mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. The Odyssey spacecraft was built by Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver. The thermal emission imaging system is managed by Arizona State University, Tempe, and the gamma ray spectrometer is managed by the University of Arizona, Tucson. NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, built and manages the Martian radiation environment experiment. Related Links Odyssey Mission Home SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express 
Scientists Track "Perfect Storm" On Mars
Baltimore - Oct 11, 2001A pair of eagle-eyed NASA spacecraft -- the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) and Hubble Space Telescope -- are giving amazed astronomers scientists a ringside seat to the biggest global dust storm seen on Mars in several decades. The Martian dust storm, larger by far than any seen on Earth, has raised a cloud of dust that has engulfed the entire planet for the past three months. As the Sun warms the airborne dust the upper atmospheric temperature has been raised by about 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Geophysical Detection of Subsurface H2O and CO2 On Mars 
Melbourne - Oct 10, 2001In early August some eighty international scientists from around the world met in August in Houston, Texas, at the NASA-sponsored GeoMars conference to discuss current and future missions to the Red Planet and instruments, data and observations relevant to the subsurface distribution of volatiles. Ancient, Gigantic Drainage Basin Became Aquifer On Mars 
Tucson - Oct 9, 2001An enormous ancient drainage basin and aquifer system lies hidden and deformed in one of the most geologically dynamic landscapes on Mars, scientists conclude from a comprehensive, more than 10-year study. Top 25 TES Science Results From Mars Global Surveyor 
Tempe - Oct 4, 2001Using a technique called thermal emission spectroscopy planetary scientists at Arizone State have been able to study in great detail the geology and atmosphere of Mars and have recently presented some 25 specific results that are helping to reshape our views on Mars and its slow evolution over billions of years. NASA Selects Spacecraft Contractor For 2005 Mars Mission 
Pasadena - October 3, 2001NASA has selected Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, to build the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, a spacecraft scheduled for launch in August 2005 to return the highest resolution images yet of the Red Planet. More Delays Will Leave Martian Scientists As Smarting As Ever 
Pasadena - Sept. 21, 2001The public affairs offices of both NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory confirmed today that the agency is likely to follow a course of action whose possibility was suggested several weeks ago in 'Space Daily': delaying by two years the planned 2007 first test flight of the complex Mars landing spacecraft that will later be used to return Mars samples to Earth. Latest Claims Of Martian Life Are Erroneous Says USGS Scientist 
Flagstaff - Sept. 20, 2001Speculations about life on Mars have always caused great interest and controversy. Recently, several Internet articles have been posted describing the discovery of Martian Surface Organisms in the south polar region of Mars. As a research scientist working on the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) Team, I have spent the last four years analyzing data from this Martian region. The data reveal a region active with interesting and intriguing physical phenomena, but does not suggest the existence of life. |
. |
|
