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.]

Hello all,

New member, first post. I have a few questions about Odyssey, and I'm hoping some of the well-informed members here will have answers!

1) What mission extension is Odyssey on? As far as I can tell, it had a fourth extension from 2010 to 2012. It should be on the fifth extension now, I suppose? Does anyone know if it is; and if so, until when does it run?

2) What's the current fuel supply? About when is it expected to run out?

3) Is fuel likely to be the limiting factor for Odyssey's lifespan?

4) What's the current status of Odyssey's various instruments? I know that MARIE (Mars Radiation Environment) has been dead since 2003, and another instrument has been inoperative. Is THEMIS the only instrument now operating?

5) I know that Odyssey is acting as a relay for MSL, of course. But I'm not up to speed on the details -- like, how often; how important is Odyssey's contribution; is it UHF only; how much can Odyssey buffer; things like that. (I am not asking anyone to sit down and write all that out! A link would be fine, if there's a page or paper somewhere explaining it.)

Many thanks in advance,


Doug M.

[Tom Tamlyn]

Doug M., welcome to the forum.

Those are interesting questions, but did you do any google searches of your own before you posted your wish list?

Googling "mars odyssey fourth mission extension," I found a mission timeline maintained by dmuller indicating that the third mission extension ended in September 2010. Refining the search to add the term "2010," I found a Universe Today article by Ken Kremer (mars loon) that answers most of your questions.

It would be a good idea to read the Rule and Guidelines for umsf.com.

[Doug M.]

Doug M., welcome to the forum.

Thanks! It's good to be here.

Those are interesting questions, but did you do any google searches of your own before you posted your wish list?

Yes, I did. A brief one, I admit, but I did. I found the Universe Today article -- it's a reference on Odyssey's wikipedia page.

Googling "mars odyssey fourth mission extension," I found a mission timeline maintained by dmuller indicating that the third mission extension ended in September 2010. Refining the search to add the term "2010," I found a Universe Today article by Ken Kremer (mars loon) that answers most of your questions.

The Muller timeline is not terribly helpful -- it's a brief listing of past events, and it gives a "predicted fuel exhaustion" of 2015, which is not consistent with other sources.

The Universe Today article is much better. However, it's two years old, and doesn't really answer my questions. For instance, it states that “More than 95 percent of the data from Spirit and Opportunity and approximately 79 percent of the data from Phoenix was relayed by Odyssey.” That's interesting, but it doesn't tell us anything about Odyssey's relationship with Curiosity. With regard to the fuel issue, the article says that “21.6 kg of propellant remains with an average consumption rate of about 1.4 kg per year... [however,] there are other elements of the spacecraft that might suggest that Odyssey’s life expectancy could be closer to six years. Lifetime issues are extremely difficult to estimate." That's some solid information, which is great. However, it doesn't tell us what the status is now, two years later. Has the fuel consumption stayed constant? Did the flywheel episode cost any fuel? Odyssey had to perform an unprecedented roll maneuver to gain signal from Curiosity; did that increase fuel consumption? Looking forward will the demands of communicating with two rovers require regular attitude changes; and if so, can this be done by flywheel, or will Odyssey have to burn more fuel?

It's entirely possible that this information is out there, and I'm just not googling hard enough! But to answer your question, yes I have made at least a basic online search; I wouldn't bring these questions here if I hadn't at least tried to find the answers first myself.

many thanks,


Doug

[Tom Tamlyn]

Doug,

The Universe Today article is much better. However, it's two years old, and doesn't really answer my questions.

It does address some. For instance, since the fourth mission extension runs through September 2012, it's pretty clear that we're not yet "on the fifth extension now." I agree that it's a little surprising and frustrating that what would seem to be a simple housekeeping question about the mission status isn't readily available. The absence of a formal press release announcing approval of a fifth extension may be due to the shoestring issue mentioned by Emily upthread; it may also be due to the fact NASA's fiscal year 2013 budget currently appears to be pending before Congress.

OTOH, there doesn't seem to any reason to think that Odyssey is going to be shut down on October 1. If you're really interested in the budgetary and bureaucratic minutiae documenting the hand-off from the fourth extension to the fifth extension, it would be etiquette to show that you've dug into the budget and planning materials available from the NASA portal before asking for help. Also, note that one of the forum's strongest policies is ixnay on oliticspay.

A June 2012 press release indicates that gamma ray spectrometer is still functioning, although it doesn't discuss whether both of the instruments in the grs suite described as functioning in the Universe Today article are still OK.

The Universe Today article ... doesn't tell us anything about Odyssey's relationship with Curiosity.

Right. The MSL landing press kit, which is featured in the MSL FAQs and USEFUL DOCUMENTS thread in this the MSL forum, provides some basic information about Curiosity's telecom link with Odyssey and MRO, along with lots of other detailed information (it's a really useful basic resource). There's also a link to an exceptionally detailed discussion of the MSL's telecommunications system design.

[Doug M.]

I agree that it's a little surprising and frustrating that what would seem to be a simple housekeeping question about the mission status isn't readily available. The absence of a formal press release announcing approval of a fifth extension may be due to the shoestring issue mentioned by Emily upthread; it may also be due to the fact NASA's fiscal year 2013 budget currently appears to be pending before Congress.

OTOH, there doesn't seem to any reason to think that Odyssey is going to be shut down on October 1. If you're really interested in the budgetary and bureaucratic minutiae documenting the hand-off from the fourth extension to the fifth extension, it would be etiquette to show that you've dug into the budget and planning materials available from the NASA portal before asking for help. Also, note that one of the forum's strongest policies is ixnay on oliticspay.

I've read the forum guidelines, so I'm aware of the ban on politics. And it strikes me as a very good idea, having seen plenty of interesting discussions get threadjacked in other forums.

I actually did several searches, using terms like "Odyssey extension", "Odyssey fifth extension", "Mars Odyssey 2012 budget", and the like. This has turned up some interesting stuff, like the MEPAG assessment of the next decade of NASA's Mars architecture, but no details on Odyssey.

I realize that as a new poster, I have no track record here. Possibly making my first post a string of questions was a mistake! If so, my bad. But going forward, it seems like it would be a bit tedious to preface every question with a description of failed search efforts. Would a simple statement that "I've tried looking for this, but have been unable to find it" suffice?

The MSL landing press kit, which is featured in the MSL FAQs and USEFUL DOCUMENTS thread in this the MSL forum, provides some basic information about Curiosity's telecom link with Odyssey and MRO, along with lots of other detailed information (it's a really useful basic resource). There's also a link to an exceptionally detailed discussion of the MSL's telecommunications system design.

The MSL press kit is indeed a great resource, and one of which I was unaware. Thank you!

The detailed discussion you mention: I assume this is the Descanso article. Clicking through to that, I find on page iii that it's #14 of a series of articles... and that article #6 in the series was"Odyssey Telecommunications" byAndre Makovsky, Andrea Barbieri, and Ramona Tung! Ah ha. And sure enough, here it is. It's a 2002 article that of course does not mention Curiosity -- but it's darn interesting reading anyhow. (And it shows that NASA was anticipating multiple Mars surface missions well over a decade ago, and designed Odyssey's comm capabilities accordingly.)

Thanks again for your helpful response,


Doug M.