 |
 Artist's impression of the Mars Odyssey spacecraft | |
| Mission type | Mars orbiter |
|---|---|
| Operator | NASA / JPL |
| COSPAR ID | 2001-013A |
| SATCATno. | 26734 |
| Website | mars |
| Mission duration | Elasped: 24 years, 10 months, 6 days from launch 24 years, 3 months, 20 days at Mars |
2001 Mars Odyssey is a roboticspacecraft orbiting the planetMars. The project was developed byNASA, and contracted out toLockheed Martin, with an expected cost for the entire mission of US$297 million. Its mission is to usespectrometers and a thermal imager to detect evidence of past or present water and ice, as well as study the planet'sgeology and radiation environment. The data Odyssey obtains is intended to help answer the question of whether life once existed on Mars and create a risk-assessment of the radiation that future astronauts on Mars might experience. It also acts as a relay for communications between theCuriosity rover, and previously the Mars Exploration Rovers and Phoenix lander, to Earth. The mission was named as a tribute toArthur C. Clarke, evoking the name of his andStanley Kubrick's 1968 film2001: A Space Odyssey.
