The Odyssey orbiter captured clouds and mud within the Pink Planet’s skies, together with one in every of its two tiny moons.
Astronauts typically react with awe once they see the curvature of the Earth under the Worldwide House Station. Now Mars scientists are getting a style of what that’s like, due to NASA’s 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter, which accomplished its twenty second yr on the Pink Planet final month.
The spacecraft captured a collection of panoramic photographs that showcases the curving Martian panorama under gauzy layers of clouds and mud. Stitched finish to finish, the ten photographs supply not solely a recent, and gorgeous, view of Mars, but additionally one that may assist scientists achieve new insights into the Martian ambiance.
The spacecraft took the pictures in Could from an altitude of about 250 miles (400 kilometers) – the identical altitude at which the house station flies above Earth.
“If there have been astronauts in orbit over Mars, that is the angle they might have,” mentioned Jonathon Hill of Arizona State College, operations lead for Odyssey’s digicam, referred to as the Thermal Emission Imaging System, or THEMIS. “No Mars spacecraft has ever had this sort of view earlier than.”
How It Was Performed
The explanation why the view is so unusual is due to the challenges concerned in creating it. Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which manages the mission, and Lockheed Martin House, which constructed Odyssey and co-leads day-to-day operations, spent three months planning the THEMIS observations. The infrared digicam’s sensitivity to heat permits it to map ice, rock, sand, and mud, together with temperature adjustments, on the planet’s floor.
It may well additionally measure how a lot water ice or mud is within the ambiance, however solely in a slender column instantly under the spacecraft. That’s as a result of THEMIS is mounted in place on the orbiter; it often factors straight down.
The mission wished a extra expansive view of the ambiance. Seeing the place these layers of water-ice clouds and mud are in relation to one another – whether or not there’s one layer or a number of stacked on prime of one another – helps scientists enhance fashions of Mars’ ambiance.
“I consider it as viewing a cross-section, a slice by way of the ambiance,” mentioned Jeffrey Plaut, Odyssey’s venture scientist at JPL. “There’s a number of element you may’t see from above, which is how THEMIS usually makes these measurements.
As a result of THEMIS can’t pivot, adjusting the angle of the digicam requires adjusting the place of the entire spacecraft. On this case, the group wanted to rotate the orbiter virtually 90 levels whereas ensuring the Solar would nonetheless shine on the spacecraft’s photo voltaic panels however not on delicate tools that would overheat. The best orientation turned out to be one the place the orbiter’s antenna pointed away from Earth. That meant the group was out of communication with Odyssey for a number of hours till the operation was full.
The Odyssey mission hopes to take related photographs sooner or later, capturing the Martian ambiance throughout a number of seasons.
Over the Moon
To benefit from their effort, the mission additionally captured imagery of Mars’ little moon Phobos. This marks the seventh time in 22 years that the orbiter has pointed THEMIS on the moon as a way to measure temperature variations throughout its floor.
“We bought a unique angle and lighting circumstances of Phobos than we’re used to,” Hill mentioned. “That makes it a singular a part of our Phobos dataset.”
The brand new imagery supplies perception into the composition and bodily properties of the moon. Additional research might assist settle a debate over whether or not Phobos, which measures about 16 miles (25 kilometers) throughout, is a captured asteroid or an historical chunk of Mars that was blasted off the floor by an affect.
NASA is collaborating with JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Company) in a pattern return mission to Phobos and its sister moon, Deimos, referred to as Mars Moon eXplorer, or MMX. Odyssey’s Phobos imagery can be useful to scientists engaged on each Odyssey in addition to MMX.
Extra In regards to the Mission
THEMIS was constructed and is operated by Arizona State College in Tempe. JPL is a division of Caltech in Pasadena.
For extra details about Odyssey:
https://mars.nasa.gov/odyssey/
Information Media Contacts
Andrew Good
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-2433
andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov
Karen Fox / Alana Johnson
NASA Headquarters, Washington
301-286-6284 / 202-358-1501
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov
2023-174
