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NASA's Mars Odyssey Enters Orbit

Posted by Hemos on from the get-it-where-it-needed-to-go dept.

maddmike writes "Nasa's Mars explorer Odyssey is scheduled to brake and orbit about Mars today at 7:30PDT. Among the mission's objectives are to understand Mars' climate and geological history and to search for signs of life sustaining environments including water. Main web site is at the JPL website." Update: 10/24 13:12 GMT by T : The BrownFury writes cites a Space.com summary which says "The Mars Odyssey spacecraft appears to have succeeded Tuesday night in one of the most tricky and critical parts of its missions by slipping into orbit around the Red Planet."

8 of 129 comments (clear)

  1. This is excellent news! by Scott+Lockwood · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This is EXACTLY the kind of good press Nasa needs right now - Hopefully, if we can avoid further mishaps, we can get the kind of funding we need to put people on Mars in my lifetime. If we can find water on the planet, think of the possibilities.

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  2. It's about time :-) by Anton+Anatopopov · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I guess by the law of averages at least one NASA mars probe would eventually get through :-)

    Seriously though, this is good news, the more data we have on Mars, the easier it will be when we attempt to colonize it.

    I can't help thinking that we are not spending enough money on cool space research like this. Why does congress always seem to resent paying for NASA ?

    NASA is a clear demonstration to the world of Americas ingenuity and power. I think at times like these we should be looking to provide them with more funding rather than cutting their budgets. After all, space research has lots of practical spin-offs, like teflon for example.

    1. Re:It's about time :-) by Skinny+Rav · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Seriously though, this is good news, the more data we have on Mars, the easier it will be when we attempt to colonize it.

      Sending unmanned probes: of course
      Sending a manned mission: why not?

      But to colonise it? Give me just one reason to justify such an incredibly expensive task.

      Of course, we should explore space, not only because of spin-offs or "Americas ingenuity and power", but because of the everpresent human curiosity, which is the force behind most of the fundamental research.

      But colonisation is something completely different. And BTW, what do you mean by colonisation? Sending a couple of scientists for a year or something, like to an orbital space station? Or maybe terraforming of Mars? In this case let us maybe start with terraforming Sahara.

      Rav

    2. Re:It's about time :-) by MrDolby · · Score: 2, Interesting

      "But to colonize it? Give me just one reason to justify such an incredibly expensive task. "

      It's simple, the human race will have a much better chance of survival if we start spreading out. Also, colonization does not require us to change or terraform all of mars. With the right equipment it should be theoretically possible to sustain a small population of humans indefinitely. This is one of the main reasons behind these probes, to determine what kind of raw materials there are available to work with that could sustain human life on mars for a long term/permanent stay.

  3. What's Next.... by cybrpnk · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There are three instruments on Odyssey. One is a gamma spectrometer that will be able to map the presence of permafrost and subsurface ice - obviously important. A second is an infrared spectrometer - not only will it be able to make a geological survey map of the minerals on the surface, it will be able to locate "hot spots" on the surface where there might still be liquid water and perhaps even life. The third instrument is a radiation monitor that was supposed to measure the dose an astronaut would receiv on a Mars mission. It appears to be broken, one hopes not from excesive radiation exposure.....

  4. Why can't we just sned a KH11? by glrotate · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Can anyone tell me why we just can't send a KH11 sattellite to Mars? It would give us all the imagery we would ever want and answer the questions we keep asking.

    1. Re:Why can't we just sned a KH11? by Wyatt+Earp · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Because a KH-11 is heavy.

      http://www.fas.org/spp/military/program/imint/xk h- 12.htm

      14 tons for a KH-11, 18 tons for the Improved Crystal.

      Niether the Americas, ESA or Proton have rockets with the throw-weight to chuck 18 tons of KH-11 to Mars.

      http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/atlsiiib.htm
      The Atlas III can launch 4,500 kg. to a Geosynchronous transfer trajectory

      http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/dellarge.htm
      The Delta IV Large can launch 10,843 kg. to a Geosynchronous transfer

      http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/ariane5.htm
      The Ariane 5 can launch 6,800 kg. to a Geosynchronous transfer

      Shuttle might do it - 24,000 kgs to LEO, but you'd have to have a big boster. Perhaps if Saturn hadn't been killed, or Energia. But right now no one has the rocket to send something like that to Mars.

  5. No joke by s20451 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The NASA people talk about the "great galactic ghoul" which lurks somewhere between Earth and Mars, which eats Mars-bound spaceprobes. It's their tongue-in-cheek attempt to explain why roughly half of all Mars probes fail -- some for apparently no reason.

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