[meteorite-list] NASA Mars Spacecraft Gear Up for Extra Work

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Sep 25 20:15:33 2006
Message-ID: <200609260015.RAA01240_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
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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-
Received on Mon 25 Sep 2006 08:15:29 PM PDT