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

[Ron Baalke]

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
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http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

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 .

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