Latest Mars Odyssey Stories

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online NASA's Curiosity rover has been hard at work for seven months now, and the Mars tourist is about to get its own Spring Break. The Red Planet will be passing almost directly behind the Sun from Earth's perspective in April for two weeks, so NASA will be putting the Curiosity mission on hold. The sun is capable of disrupting radio transmissions between the two planets during the near-alignment, so NASA is holding off sending commands to...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 21, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A NASA project that allows students to use a camera on a spacecraft orbiting Mars for research has received a new education prize from the journal Science. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) NASA's Mars Student Imaging Project (MSIP), a component of NASA's Science Mission Directorate education and outreach activities, enables students from fifth grade through college to take an image of the Red Planet's...

Arizona State University Letting secondary school students use an operating NASA spacecraft to take images of Mars is about as hands-on as science education can get. Nor are the students just aiming the space camera randomly. Instead, they are targeting an image on the Red Planet's surface to answer a scientific question about Mars that the students themselves have developed. That's the exciting premise of the award-winning Mars Student Imaging Project (MSIP). A key component of...

Alan McStravick for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online We found out this week that the NASA Mars Odyssey orbiter, launched in 2001, had stopped working. It was no longer sending us vital information from our planned missions to the red planet. We also learned that this was completely intentional. This is because the Odyssey was completing a planned switch-over to a set of redundant equipment that included its main computing system. The transition to equipment that had not been in...

[WATCH VIDEO: Living On Mars Time] Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online It has been three months since NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover landed on the Red Planet. During this time, the team operating the mission has been operating on “Mars time.” Because an average day (called a Sol on Mars) is about 40 minutes longer than an Earth day, the team’s daily start times had been moving a few hours later each week, resulting in many overnight shifts. Due to the...

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter, already the longest-working spacecraft ever sent to Mars, will switch to some fresh, redundant equipment next week that has not been used since before launch in 2001. Like many spacecraft, this orbiter carries a pair of redundant main computers, so that a backup is available if one fails. Odyssey's "A-side" computer and "B-side" computer each have several other redundant subsystems linked to just that computer. The Odyssey team...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online NASA's Curiosity rover has sent back a Martian weather report, showing surprisingly mild daytime temperatures. The rover's Remote Environment Monitoring Station (REMS) is the latest Martian meteorologist, and it has been keeping NASA updated with the weather on the Red Planet around Gale Crater. The latest data shows the average daytime air temperatures have reached a peak of 42 degrees Fahrenheit on Mars around Curiosity....

Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online In preparation for the upcoming Curiosity rover landing on the Red Planet, the Mars orbiter Odyssey has successfully repositioned itself into an orbital location that will allow for prompt confirmation to Earth of a successful landing. Curiosity, which is being carried to the Red Planet aboard the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), can send limited data directly to Earth as it enters the atmosphere on Mars. Before the landing, Earth...

PASADENA, Calif., July 24, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft has successfully adjusted its orbital location to be in a better position to provide prompt confirmation of the August landing of the Curiosity rover. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft carrying Curiosity can send limited information directly to Earth as it enters Mars' atmosphere. Before the landing, Earth will set below...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter is back in business after the spacecraft found itself placed into "safe" mode earlier this month. The spacecraft's flight team returned the orbiter back to full service this week after a two-week sequence of activities to recover Odyssey from safe mode. The orbiter switched itself to safe mode when one of the three primary reaction wheels used for altitude control stuck for a few minutes on June 8....