Mars Odyssey Mission Status Report
Written by Guy Webster
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pasadena, CA – NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter put itself into a precautionary standby status early Friday, June 8th, Universal Time (Thursday evening, Pacific Time), when the spacecraft detected unexpected characteristics in movement of one of its reaction wheels.
The spacecraft uses three of these wheels as the primary method for adjusting and maintaining its orientation. It carries a spare reaction wheel.
Odyssey’s flight team is in communication with the spacecraft while planning actions in response to Odyssey entering the standby status, which is called safe mode.
Because the trigger for the incident was limited to a reaction wheel, the spacecraft did not need to completely reboot its computer, as it had in some earlier safing incidents during its record-setting decade of service at Mars. The flight team will be developing a recovery timeline in coming days.
NASA launched the Mars Odyssey spacecraft on April 7th, 2001. Odyssey arrived at Mars October 24th, 2001. After arrival, the spacecraft spent several months using a technique called aerobraking, which involved dipping into the Martian atmosphere to adjust its orbit.
In February 2002, science operations began. Odyssey has worked at Mars longer than any other mission in history. Besides conducting its own scientific observations, it serves as a communication relay for robots on the surface of Mars. NASA plans to use Odyssey and the newer Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as communication relays for the Mars Science Laboratory mission during the landing and Mars-surface operations of that mission’s Curiosity rover.
Odyssey is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built the spacecraft. JPL and Lockheed Martin collaborate on operating the spacecraft. For more about the Mars Odyssey mission, visit: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/odyssey .
