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2001 Mars Odyssey is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the red planet. The opportunity to go to Mars comes around every 26 months, when the alignment of Earth and Mars in their orbits around the sun allows spacecraft to travel between the two planets with the least amount of energy. 2001 Mars Odyssey launched on April 7, 2001, and arrived at Mars on October 24, 2001. Odyssey's primary science mission will take place February 2002 through August 2004. For the first time, the mission will map the amount and distribution of chemical elements and minerals that make up the Martian surface. The spacecraft will especially look for hydrogen, most likely in the form of water ice, in the shallow subsurface of Mars. It will also record the radiation environment in low Mars orbit to determine the radiation-related risk to any future human explorers who may one day go to Mars. All of these objectives support the four science goals of the Mars Exploration Program. The three primary instruments carried by 2001 Mars Odyssey are: THEMIS (Thermal Emission Imaging System), for determining the distribution of minerals, particularly those that can only form in the presence of water; GRS (Gamma Ray Spectrometer), for determining the presence of 20 chemical elements on the surface of Mars, including hydrogen in the shallow subsurface (which acts as a proxy for determining the amount and distribution of possible water ice on the planet); and MARIE (Mars Radiation Environment Experiment), for studying the radiation environment.
During and after its science mission, the Odyssey orbiter will also support other missions in the Mars Exploration program. It will provide the communications relay for U.S. and international landers.
Our CD-ROMs are privately-compiled collections of official public domain U.S. government files and documents - they are not produced by the federal government. They are designed to provide a convenient user-friendly reference work, utilizing the benefits of the Acrobat format to uniformly present thousands of pages that can be rapidly reviewed, searched, or printed without untold hours of tedious searching and downloading. Vast archives of important public domain government information that might otherwise remain inaccessible are available for instant review no matter where you are. This book-on-a-disc set makes a great reference work and educational tool.
