2001 Mars Odyssey

2001 Mars Odyssey is a <a href="/facts/Robotic_spacecraft/Frlbbkvu">robotic spacecraft</a> <a href="/facts/Orbit/nD2TPySG">orbiting</a> the <a href="/facts/Planet/rbPjE6Bx">planet</a> <a href="/facts/Mars/AQGtVvz0">Mars</a>. The project was developed by <a href="/facts/NASA/TIMCV0yV">NASA</a>, and contracted out to <a href="/facts/Lockheed_Martin/URp9BQpA">Lockheed Martin</a>, with an expected cost for the entire mission of US$297 million. Its mission is to use <a href="/facts/Spectrometer/IqRE8xaQ">spectrometers</a> and a <a href="/facts/Thermal_imager/dplJK39u">thermal imager</a> to detect evidence of past or present <a href="/facts/Water_on_Mars/uBNTfa37">water</a> and ice, as well as study the <a href="/facts/Geology_of_Mars/rt6zWIKx">planet's geology</a> and radiation environment. The data Odyssey obtains is intended to help answer the question of whether <a href="/facts/Life_on_Mars_(planet)/A14ye2It">life</a> once existed on Mars and create a risk-assessment of the radiation that future astronauts on Mars might experience. It also acts as a relay for communications between the <a href="/facts/Curiosity_(rover)/mVLawAfA">Curiosity rover</a>, and previously the <a href="/facts/Mars_Exploration_Rover/74WxIsHS">Mars Exploration Rovers</a> and <a href="/facts/Phoenix_lander/3rKuwcRX">Phoenix lander</a>, to <a href="/facts/Earth/HLLmDfj0">Earth</a>. The mission was named as a tribute to <a href="/facts/Arthur_C._Clarke/2XJ6UGDB">Arthur C. Clarke</a>, evoking the name of his and <a href="/facts/Stanley_Kubrick/y5cxcQzV">Stanley Kubrick</a>'s 1968 film <a href="/facts/2001%3a_A_Space_Odyssey_(film)/yUhFQY8W">2001: A Space Odyssey</a>.
Odyssey was launched April 7, 2001, on a <a href="/facts/Delta_II/GoBa3Qch">Delta II</a> rocket from <a href="/facts/Cape_Canaveral_Air_Force_Station/dwJ9MCPH">Cape Canaveral Air Force Station</a>, and reached Mars orbit on October 24, 2001, at 02:30 <a href="/facts/UTC/2EnjfSyu">UTC</a> (October 23, 19:30 <a href="/facts/Pacific_Daylight_Time/v04MPIjz">PDT</a>, 22:30 <a href="/facts/Eastern_Daylight_Time/jP4S8j1V">EDT</a>). As of March 2025, it is still collecting data, and is estimated to have enough propellant to function until the end of 2025. It currently holds the record for the longest-surviving continually active spacecraft in orbit around a planet other than Earth, ahead of the <a href="/facts/Pioneer_Venus_Orbiter/jDr7s2Re">Pioneer Venus Orbiter</a> (served 14 years) and the <a href="/facts/Mars_Express/wM1scUfh">Mars Express</a> (serving over 20 years), at 23 years, 6 months and 1 day. As of October 2019<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2001_Mars_Odyssey&action=edit">[update]</a> it is in a <a href="/facts/Polar_orbit/JLUlIPlq">polar orbit</a> around Mars with a semi-major axis of about 3,800 km or 2,400 miles.
On May 28, 2002 (sol 210), NASA reported that Odyssey's GRS instrument had detected large amounts of <a href="/facts/Hydrogen/BoYHjl0J">hydrogen</a>, a sign that there must be ice lying within a meter of the planet's surface, and proceeded to map the distribution of water below the shallow surface. The orbiter also discovered vast deposits of bulk water ice near the surface of equatorial regions.
Odyssey has also served as the primary means of communications for NASA's Mars surface explorers in the past decade, up to the <a href="/facts/Mars_Science_Laboratory/yEARUMpM">Curiosity rover</a>.

2001 Mars Odyssey open-in-new

2001 Mars Odyssey