14 DAY TRIAL // Officials at NASA announce that the long-term Mars Odyssey orbiter, currently flying around the Red Planet, has just received a new project manager, in the person of former United States Air Force Pilot Gaylon McSmith.
He has experience flying fighter jets and Continental Airlines passenger planes, and has been a part of the team managing the Odyssey for about 9 years.
McSmith has been the leader of the Odyssey team since October 2001, which is about two months after the spacecraft made it to Mars. The probe is the longest-working explorations robot around Mars now.
Like the rovers Spirit and Opportunity, and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), Odyssey is also managed by experts at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, California.
The probe is on the fast track to beating Mars Global Surveyor's (MGS) record as the longest-working spacecraft ever sent to our neighboring planet.
If it makes it until December 15 without any glitch, then Odyssey will exceed the mark set by the MGS, which was in Martian orbit between 1997 and 2006.
“The spacecraft continues to be a very reliable platform that conducts its own science investigations, plus important support for other Mars missions. It's a great honor for me to work with the Odyssey team,” McSmith says.
In addition to conducting its own surveys, the probe has also been used to relay communications from the two rovers on the surface, and for attempting to pick up any potential radio signals from the Phoenix Mars Lander mission.
Odyssey also managed to produce a high-resolution map of the entire planet, in addition to analyzing the radiation levels on its surface. This will come in handy when we send astronauts there.
Additionally, the instrument suite the orbiter carries was also able to pinpoint the location of vast water-ice reservoirs, lurking just beneath Mars' surface.
“Observations by Odyssey have contributed to selection and analysis of landing sites for four Mars surface missions,” experts at the JPL say in a press release.
“Thousands of students have participated in a groundbreaking educational program enabling them to select Odyssey imaging targets on Mars and conduct real scientific investigations,” they add.
“McSmith, who now has a home in Pasadena, grew up in the Eagle Rock district of Los Angeles, a few miles from JPL,” the press release states.