14 DAY TRIAL // According to experts at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, California, the Mars Odyssey orbiter placed itself in a safe mode on Wednesday, July 14. Mission experts say that the anomaly occurred following an electronic encoder malfunction, and say that steps are being taken to put the spacecraft back online this week. This is not the first time that the orbiter does this, but most of the glitches it experiences can be attributed to its old age. Odyssey has been observing Mars since 2001, and it most likely still has a long way to go before it's retired.
Mission managers and programmers are currently developing lines of code to upload to the spacecraft. They hope that the new instructions will be sufficient to repair, or bypass, the problem, and restore at least partial functionality to the Mars Odyssey. The machine is capable of conducting incredibly accurate observations using its onboard instruments, and its presence in Martian orbit has proven invaluable to missions such as the Phoenix lander and the twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity. The orbiter was also used as a relay for radio transmissions between the robotic explorers and Earth, given that power supplies are not an issue.
Despite suffering numerous glitches, JPLS experts are hopeful that the spacecraft will be OK. “We expect to be back to full operations this week,” JPLK Odyssey Project Manager Phil Varghese says. He explains that the electronic encoder at fault controls a gimbal that is responsible for rearranging the solar array that produces the energy Odyssey uses. According to mission specialists, tests indicate that the solar array and the mechanisms controlling it are completely functional, and that the problem relies with the encoder itself.
The malfunction did not affect the rover Opportunity, which continuously transmits data using Odyssey as a relay antenna. The rover missed a few daily goals, but its overall operations have not been hindered, JPL experts say. The lab, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages Mars Odyssey for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, in Washington DC. Denver-based Lockheed Martin Space Systems is the prime contractor for the project, and also the builder of the spacecraft.