News Archive

Friday, January 30, 2004 2001 Mars Odyssey Celebrates 1 Year Anniversary 2001 Mars Odyssey. Credit: NASA/JPL With all the excitement surrounding the MER's, most people have overlooked a very important orbiter: 2001 Mars Odyssey. On January 11th, it celebrated its 1 Martian year anniversary (687 Earth days). Odyssey has shown us that the southern polar cap was made of ice, analyzed Mars' compositions, and did radiation studies. "Before you send any landers to Mars, you want to look at the planet as a whole. We call that 'global reconnaissance,'" said Bob Mase, Odyssey Mission Manager. "We are both limited in what we can do. Orbiters can’t scrape rocks and look at them microscopically, and rovers cannot traverse and image the entire planet. So, the two types of missions really complement one another." Odyssey has also been a communication relay for the landers/rovers. 75% of Spirits data has traveled via Odyssey. Kudos to the Odyssey orbiter and team. Best wishes for another year. (More info: NASA/JPL) @ 21:50 EST