| Topic: |
Science > Physics |
| User: |
"Sam Wormley" |
| Date: |
25 Sep 2006 11:07:36 PM |
| Object: |
NASA Mars Spacecraft Gear Up for Extra Work |
Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Erica Hupp/Dwayne Brown 202-358-1237/1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington
NEWS RELEASE: 2006-115 September 25, 2006
NASA Mars Spacecraft Gear Up for Extra Work
NASA's Mars robotic missions are performing so well, they are being
prepared for additional overtime work.
The team operating the twin Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and
Opportunity, since January 2004, won approval for an additional year of
exploration. NASA funded the extensions on recommendations from an
outside panel of scientists. NASA also is adding two more years of
operations for Mars Global Surveyor, which has been orbiting Mars since
1997, and the Mars Odyssey orbiter, at the red planet since 2001.
These mission extensions will begin Oct. 1, 2006. The spacecraft
beginning extended missions have already completed a successful prime
mission plus years of additional service. The extensions occur when
NASA's newest Mars spacecraft, named the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter,
is about to begin its main science phase.
"Each of these missions increases the value of the others and of the
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter," said Doug McCuistion, director of NASA's
Mars Exploration Program, NASA Headquarters, Washington. "By extending
these missions, we gain very cost-effective additional benefits from
the investments in developing them and getting them to Mars."
Each orbiter has a different set of instruments, and the spacecraft
complement each other in helping scientists understand Mars. Also,
observations by the rovers on the ground validate interpretation of
information from the orbiters. Observations by the orbiters allow
extrapolation from what the rovers find in small areas. The orbiters
support current and future surface missions with landing-site
assessments and communication relays.
Both rovers are still healthy, more than 31 months into what was
originally planned as a three-month exploration of their landing areas.
Provided they remain operable, their fourth mission extension will take
them into Martian spring and summer, increasing their solar-energy
supply and daily capabilities. Spirit has been studying its
surroundings from a stationary, sun-facing tilt for several months. "As
we get into the Martian spring, Spirit will resume exploring the inner
basin of the 'Columbia Hills,'" said Dr. Bruce Banerdt, rover project
scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Opportunity will spend the extension at "Victoria Crater."
Each Martian year lasts nearly two Earth years. The longevity of Mars
Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey has allowed researchers to watch how
Mars changes not just from season to season, but from year to year.
Mars Global Surveyor has observed shrinking of the south polar
carbon-dioxide ice cap from one summer to the next. "This extension
will take us through our fifth annual cycle of Martian summers and
winters," said Thomas Thorpe of JPL, project manager for Mars Global
Surveyor.
"With the additional years of observations, we are able to monitor the
Martian climate, not just the weather. There is a hypothesis that Mars'
climate is changing, perhaps rapidly. The combination of instruments
from different orbiters strengthens our ability to study that
possibility. With Odyssey, for example, we can monitor the mass of
carbon-dioxide frost in winter to help understand the changes that
Global Surveyor is seeing in the summers," said JPL's Dr. Jeffrey
Plaut, project scientist for Mars Odyssey.
The Odyssey flight team at JPL and at Lockheed Martin Space Systems,
Denver, plans to teach the spacecraft some new tricks during the
mission extension. New software will enable the spacecraft to make
choices about which images are high priority. Also, the team will begin
pointing Odyssey slightly off the straight-down view it has flown so
far. This will enable imaging of polar areas it never flies directly
over. Odyssey also will continue serving as the primary communications
relay for the rovers Spirit and Opportunity.
NASA also has extended the U.S. participation in the European Space
Agency's Mars Express mission. That orbiter reached Mars in 2003 and
is in an extended mission.
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena,
manages the Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Odyssey and Mars Exploration
Rover projects for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the
Global Surveyor and Odyssey projects and built those spacecraft.
For additional information about NASA Mars missions, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/main .
-end-
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| User: "Uncle Al" |
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| Title: Re: NASA Mars Spacecraft Gear Up for Extra Work |
26 Sep 2006 10:21:06 AM |
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Sam Wormley wrote:
Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Erica Hupp/Dwayne Brown 202-358-1237/1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington
NEWS RELEASE: 2006-115 September 25, 2006
NASA Mars Spacecraft Gear Up for Extra Work
NASA's Mars robotic missions are performing so well, they are being
prepared for additional overtime work.
[snip]
"With the additional years of observations, we are able to monitor the
Martian climate, not just the weather. There is a hypothesis that Mars'
climate is changing, perhaps rapidly.
Global Warming from anthropogenic sources. Martian climate was
stable until uncontrolled anthropogenic emissions set it all
higgledy-piggledy. We must "Save Mars!" by cutting back both rover
missions by 10%/year - and that will not be enough!
[snip]
--
Uncle Al
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/
(Toxic URL! Unsafe for children and most mammals)
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/qz3.pdf
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