Odyssey mission status Options

[rlorenz]

Odyssey uses ring laser gyros. From http://research.nianet.org/~rtolson/docume..._MRO_AB_JSR.pdf

Ah silly me. I made the mistake of looking in Tolson's paper on Odyssey to find out about Odyssey's IMU.... of course, the info is in a paper on MRO.....

Ring laser gyro lifetime limits are typically due to gas impurity buildups in the RLG cavity.

Interesting !
Thanks

[Doug M.]

Noted in passing: the 11th anniversary of Odyssey's active mission passed a few weeks ago in February, and the 12th (!) anniversary of its launch is a couple of weeks from now, on April 7.

We don't know how much longer it can last, but it's certainly had a good run.


Doug M.

[Doug M.]

And that makes a round dozen years' active mission for Odyssey.

Mars Odyssey doesn't get as much love as MRO. But it's been providing a steady flow of science, and the current orbital shift should provide another wave of new insights. In an e-mail discussion a few weeks ago, the Odyssey team said they thought they had several years worth of propellant left. So here's hoping it'll still be working for years yet to come.


Doug M.

[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.

[djellison]

Especially as its instrument suite became the backbone of MGS, MCO and MODY.

[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.

[mcaplinger]

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

MGS was primarily built with Mars Observer spares mounted on a new composite structure and propulsion and power systems.

Odyssey is mostly identical to MCO.

MRO is a larger evolution of the same basic design. All of these spacecraft were designed and built by the same group at Lockheed-Martin.

As always, history is more complicated than can be easily captured in a short post.

[djellison]

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?

No - not entirely - MGS was more Mars Observer than MODY. MODY and MCO were very similar builds a generation 'newer' than MGS. MRO is a next gen design beyond that ( although heavily derived from MODY - and Juno / MAVEN borrow on that design quite heavily ) .....and the last 2 of the instruments 'lost' with Mars Observer didn't get to really do their job until MRO as their first re-flights on MCO were a loss as well ( MARCI and PMIRR/MCS )

[mcaplinger]

...and the last 2 of the instruments 'lost' with Mars Observer didn't get to really do their job until MRO as their first re-flights on MCO were a loss as well ( MARCI and PMIRR/MCS )

Not quite, MARCI was a new design for MCO but its first successful mission was on MRO (although THEMIS VIS on Ody is basically a repackaged MARCI with a MARDI frame buffer.)

[Doug M.]

So:

Mars Observer (1992, lost) -> Mars Global Surveyor (1996-2006) built with Mars Observer spares on a new chassis

Mars Climate Orbiter (1998, lost) -> Mars Odyssey (2001-present)

Mars Reconaissance Orbiter (2005-present) -- new generation with some similarities to MODY, elements of its design incorporated into MAVEN and JUNO.

But MODY's instrument package looks rather different. Mcaplinger, you note that Odyssey's THEMIS was basically a repackaged MARCI -- I did not know that! Is it relevant that THEMIS is looking at different wavelengths? -- but the rest of its package, MARIE and the gamma ray spectrometer, appear unique to MODY.


Doug M.

[mcaplinger]

Mcaplinger, you note that Odyssey's THEMIS was basically a repackaged MARCI -- I did not know that! Is it relevant that THEMIS is looking at different wavelengths? -- but the rest of its package, MARIE and the gamma ray spectrometer, appear unique to MODY.

I didn't say that, I said that the THEMIS Visible Subsystem was a repackaged MARCI. There are lots of good references on this; see http://www.msss.com/all_projects/mars-odyssey-themis.php or http://themis.asu.edu/ or read Christensen et al, The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) for the Mars 2001 Odyssey Mission, Space Science Reviews, 110, 85-130, 2004.

The GRS is a rebuild of the same instrument on Mars Observer. Boynton et al, Science applications of the Mars Observer gamma ray spectrometer, Journal of Geophysical Research (ISSN 0148-0227), vol. 97, no. E5, May 25, 1992, p. 7681-7698.

[stevesliva]

Given the number of missions, both orbital and landed, there can be an interesting combo of newly evolved spacecraft using proven instruments, followed by proven spacecraft using newly evolved instruments. I think it's more budge management than risk management that makes it seem that way.

[ElkGroveDan]

Mars Observer (1992, lost) -> Mars Global Surveyor (1996-2006) built with Mars Observer spares on a new chassis

Mars Climate Orbiter (1998, lost) -> Mars Odyssey (2001-present)

In this context you might want to include Mars Polar Lander (1999, lost) -> Mars Phoenix Lander (2008)

[Explorer1]

I think Doug M's original post was purely on successful missions, in which case there was indeed a nearly two decade map in the exploration timeline. Might want to work Deep Space 2 in there somehow, as well.

To get back on topic, any bets on what might finally end Odyssey's... odyssey? Reaction wheels, propellant depletion, electronics, etc?