NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft has been working for therefore lengthy, it may possibly hire a automotive with none charges. The spacecraft arrived on the Purple Planet on October 24, 2001. It, together with its 20-year-old sibling, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), have operated longer than anybody watching their launches may have dreamed potential.
Having such a lengthy document of observations from above the Martian floor has rewritten the story of water on the planet, previous and current alike. Retaining the wizened orbiters going for therefore lengthy has been potential solely due to nice engineering and fixed downside fixing—and somewhat luck. However scientists ponder whether, regardless of their storied legacies, Odyssey and MRO would be the final of their variety, at the very least for the Purple Planet.
“Each Odyssey and MRO are among the most efficient spacecraft which have ever existed,” says Briony Horgan, a planetary scientist at Purdue College who isn’t affiliated with both mission, calling them “important” to NASA’s general Mars analysis program. Odyssey’s observations of the planet’s ice, for instance, and MRO’s potential to see floor options change over time have every given scientists unprecedented perception into Mars as a vibrant planet quite than a lump of rock. Odyssey and MRO additionally join people to each NASA rover, which might’t talk with Earth instantly. It’s a formidable legacy for a pair of orbiters that have been solely meant to final only a few years.
Area is a notoriously harsh surroundings that takes luck and resilience to outlive for many years. Significantly difficult is the barrage of high-energy particles hitting equipment; a robust sufficient strike to a fragile sufficient equipment will be deadly. And whereas engineers can hold fixed tabs on satellites orbiting Earth, bandwidth to Mars is extra restricted—science spacecraft may solely test in a few times per week, says Rob Lillis, a planetary and house physicist on the College of California, Berkeley, who has labored on a variety of newer Mars orbiters.
“A Mars craft has to have the ability to handle by itself,” he says.
