Odyssey mission status Options

[OWW]

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/odyssey/newsroom/.../20070327a.html

Engineers for NASA's Mars Odyssey mission are examining data from the orbiter to determine whether onboard backup systems never used by the 6-year-old spacecraft could still be available if needed.

Odyssey reported last week that a power processing component of the backup, or "B-side," systems had stopped working. The component, the high-efficiency power supply, has a twin that is continuing to serve the "A-side" hardware, which is operating normally. Odyssey has stayed on its A-side systems, including the A-side flight computer, since launch on April 7, 2001. However, the A-side power supply cannot serve most systems on the B-side, including the backup B-side computer. If engineers do not determine a way to restore the B-side power supply, most of the backup hardware would not be available, if it were ever needed.

Odyssey is in its second extended mission. The orbiter is conducting scientific observations and also serving as the primary communications relay for NASA's Mars rovers. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Odyssey Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft.


I hope Odyssey is not one failure away from another MGS-type loss because of this.

[Doug M.]

And that makes thirteen years of active mission for Mars Odyssey.

When Odyssey arrived at Mars in 2002, there was only one other active mission: Mars Global Surveyor, which had been orbiting the red planet since 1997. The successful but short-lived Pathfinder mission had landed in 1997, successfully disembarking the Sojourner rover. And that was it for the entire decade before Odyssey. In fact, other than a short-lived Russian mission in the 1980s, that was it all the way back to the Viking landers in the 1970s. You had Viking, 20 years of nothing much, MGS and Pathfinder in 1997, and then nothing for another five years. Since Odyssey's arrival, of course, we've had Spirit, Opportunity, Phoenix, Mars Express, MRO, Curiosity, MOM/Mangalyaan and Maven. That's a lander, three rovers, and four orbiters, along with flybys from Dawn and Rosetta.

Odyssey doesn't mark the beginning of modern Mars exploration, quite -- that honor belongs to MGS and Pathfinder. But Odyssey's arrival marks the inflection point where exploration really began to take off.

Odyssey has been the senior mission at Mars since MGS went silent back in 2007. Despite various nicks and dings, it's still in remarkably good condition, and is still producing good science.


Doug M.

[mcaplinger]

20 years of nothing much...

I think that despite its failure you might at least mention Mars Observer.

[Doug M.]

I think that despite its failure you might at least mention Mars Observer.

If we mentioned failed Mars missions... how many have there been, anyway? The 1980s Soviet missions, Observer, Mars Climate, Nozomi, Beagle, Phobos-Grunt...

Djellison, I have the impression that Odyssey was part of a "family" that included MGS and Mars Climate, with MRO representing the next generation beyond. Would that be a fair statement?


Doug M.