2001 Mars Odyssey was launched on April 7, 2001 from Cape Canaveral on a Delta II rocket and entered orbit around Mars on October 24, 2001. Its mission was to use spectrometers and a thermal imaging camera to detect signs of water and study the planet’s geology and radiation environment.
These data are studied in connection with the question of the existence of life on Mars and the assessment of the radiation risk for future astronauts on the planet. The spacecraft also acts as a telecommunications relay between Earth and robotic vehicles present on Mars. The mission was named after Arthur Clarke and his book 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was successfully made into a film.
The record
O NASA he announced that Mars Odyssey completed 100 thousand revolutions during its orbital movement around Mars, thus breaking another record and writing its own space history. So far, the satellite has sent back to Earth 17.1 Terabits of its own data and 1.33 Terabits of data from rovers sent to the Red Planet over the past 20 years. The satellite also captured 1.4 million images of Mars.
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