20 years of US Mars mission, 1.22 millions photos given by 88 thousand rounds of the Red Planet [TKB Science]

A Mars mission of America has been giving information about the Red Planet for the last 20 years. Not getting tired. Nor is it stopping. Doesn’t get sick. The secrets of the Red Planet are being opened through the bus signal. The name of this spacecraft with such superb technology is Mars Odyssey Spacecraft.

The US launched the Mars Odyssey spacecraft on 7 April 2001 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. After a complex journey of 9 months in space, that spacecraft went into the orbit of Mars on 24 October 2001. That is, on 24 October 2021, it will be 20 years while circling Mars. Once it set in the orbit of Mars, it has not left it till date. working continuously. Sending pictures and data.

The Mars Odyssey spacecraft has made more than 88 thousand revolutions around Mars in its 20-year career. During this time it has sent more than 1.2 millions pictures to the earth. Which is a treasure trove of information about Mars. With the help of these treasures, scientists have gained more knowledge about Mars. NASA scientists jokingly say that Mars Odyssey has fallen in love with Mars. It only takes her picture.

While circling Mars for so many years, Mars Odyssey has also helped many countries including America in the 6 Mars missions that followed. From Mars, it has sent 16 terabytes of data to Earth. This is such a huge amount of data that you can download 4000 movies of 120 minutes in an external hard drive with so much storage. 310 K photos can be downloaded in one terabyte, 4.9 million pictures can be downloaded or saved in 16 terabyte of storage.

Not only this, this spacecraft has received data of 1 terabyte from the rovers roaming on Mars and sent it to Earth. The Mars Odyssey spacecraft is about 7.2 feet long. It is 5.6 feet high and 2.6 feet wide. Its solar panels are 18.7 feet long. The weight of this vehicle is 729.7 kg.

For the study of Mars, five instruments have been installed in it. Which are called payloads. These are – Thermal Emission Imaging System, Gamma Ray Spectrometer, Neutron Spectrometer, High-Energy Neutron Detector and Martian Radiation Environment Experiment. All these payloads are working fine till date. It was sent to space by Delta-2 rocket. It makes one revolution in the orbit of Mars in 19 minutes.

The total cost of the Mars Odyssey spacecraft mission was 222.37 million in the year 2001.  At the same time, by sending instructions to them, it does whatever it wants to do. That is, the first message from Earth goes to Mars Odyssey, after that it sends those messages to NASA’s rover and lander on Mars. Then after receiving their message sends it back to earth.

Of all the information sent from Mars by the Mars Odyssey spacecraft, the most important was the discovery of ice on Mars. Because there is ice on Mars. For the first time, this vehicle sent a picture of the ice present at the north pole of Mars. Also, whenever a mission sends NASA from Earth to Mars. So with the help of Mars Odyssey, it calculates the landing of the next mission, the weather there, etc.