2001: A Space Odyssey

Illustration by Victor Chen

By Lisa Klassen
Daily Bruin Reporter

NASA began another mission when its 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft
roared into space from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Saturday .

“I’ve never seen a more spectacular launch,”
said Odyssey’s mission manager David Spencer in a statement
from the Jet Propulsion Laboratories.

“The spacecraft seems to be performing beautifully, and
we’re right on our timeline,” Spencer said. “This
gives us a terrific start on our odyssey to Mars.”

NASA is working with scientists at the University of
Arizona-Tucson, Arizona State University in Tempe, and with its own
Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, to gather information from
the Odyssey.

Although UCLA is not directly involved with the Odyssey mission,
David Paige, associate professor of planetary science at
UCLA’s Department of Earth and Space Sciences, hopes the
university will be included in future endeavors.

According to Paige, having the Department of Earth and Space
Sciences as well as other departments involved with a space program
would be a valuable experience.

“We’re going to try to get involved with future
missions,” Paige said. “There’s an opportunity
for launching every two years, and I’m hoping that
we’ll be able to be a part of it next time.”

Paige was in charge of the instrument package of the Mars Polar
Lander, which was due to touch down on the Red Planet last
year.

Unfortunately, the ill-fated mission never signalled back to
Earth, leaving the headquarters which were supposed to be at UCLA
empty.

Unlike other missions, the Odyssey is designed to orbit Mars and
make observations of the planet’s surface and radiation.

According to NASA, the craft is equipped with three instruments
designed to gather information about the planet: an instrument for
measuring thermal emissions, another for detecting gamma radiation,
and an experiment designed to map Martian radiation.

“We’re using instruments we’ve never used on
Mars before,” said Mary Hardin, a spokeswoman for the Jet
Propulsion Laboratories. “The instruments will measure
different bands of the electromagnetic spectrum which will let us
see the actual minerals that make up the surface of
Mars.”

According to Hardin, the information collected by the Odyssey
will allow scientists to learn more about the evolution of Mars
and, in turn, more about the evolution of Earth.

According to Paige, a discovery of water or ice could be a sign
of life that once existed on Mars.

“NASA is maintaining a rigorous program for Mars in hopes
of discovering new information about the planet and its
climate,” he said.

During the trip, the spacecraft will activate and calibrate
its scientific instruments and begin to collect data.

It is scheduled to reach the planet on Oct. 24, when it will
fire its main engine and be captured in the planet’s orbit.
The craft will begin studies of Mars in January of 2002. Before
then, it will continue calibrating its instruments and stabilizing
its orbit of Mars.

NASA also plans to collect information about radiation on and
around Mars to determine the possibility of future human
exploration.

Past failed missions also include the Mars Observer, launched in
1993 and the Climate Orbiter, launched in 1998, according to
NASA’s Mars Exploration Web Site. These missions were
unsuccessful in gathering information, mostly due to technical
problems and equipment failures.

One of the recent successful missions was the Mars Pathfinder,
launched in 1996, which gathered information about the surface of
Mars and its climate.

The Mars Global Surveyor, also launched in 1996, is the most
successful mission so far. According to NASA’s Mars
Exploration Web Site, the Global Surveyor has collected information
about the geography of the planet. Although it finished its mission
in January of 2001, it is now in an extended mission phase.

The Odyssey mission seeks to build on the information gathered
from past missions as well as enhancing maps created by the Mars
Global Surveyor, Paige said.

“With better maps, we’ll be able to find better
places to land,” he said. “And that information would
be very useful for future missions.”