Let the Odyssey begin!

That is the theme underscoring the excitement shared by scientists analyzing new data relayed from the Mars Odyssey spacecraft as it orbits the red planet.

However, Mars Odyssey investigators remain tight-lipped about what the spacecraft is seeing, offering only subtle hints regarding the probe's scientific sleuthing.

Early findings from NASA's Mars Odyssey are to be detailed Friday at a science briefing, held at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.

Images from Odyssey's Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) have been called "amazing" by Stephen Saunders, Odyssey project scientist from JPL.

JPL manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.

James Garvin, Mars Exploration Program Scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., shares the same view as Saunders regarding first-look images by THEMIS. "It's a whole new Mars," he told SPACE.com

THEMIS produces infrared and visible images and is built to determine the mineralogy of Mars. THEMIS is also the ancient Greek Goddess of Justice.

One "justifiable" hope for Mars scientists using THEMIS is to spot localized deposits associated with hydrothermal environments. Finding such a "hot spot" would be akin to studying sites at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. Also, the device is on a global search for heat belching up from active volcanic areas that may be still percolating on Mars.

Detecting warm and wet niches on Mars shores up the prospect that life could be present on the planet.

THEMIS is being controlled and operated from the Arizona State University campus in Tempe, Arizona.

In November of last year, THEMIS calibration images were released of Mars' south pole region, showing an extremely cold carbon dioxide laden ice cap. The instrument provided additional details along the edge of the ice cap, as well as atmospheric hazes near the cap. The haze was due to lingering dust that still remained in Mars' atmosphere from massive dust storms that swirled around the planet for several months.

Another instrument onboard Odyssey is yielding intriguing data too.

The spacecraft's Gamma Ray Spectrometer on Mars Odyssey -- really three instruments in one -- is designed to analyze the chemical composition of the Martian surface. The spectrometer also has the tantalizing capability to detect water, if it exists, at shallow depths beneath Mars' surface.

Even though the detector is still latched close to the spacecraft, not to be deployed on its boom for several more months, "we can see some interesting signals from Mars," said William Boynton, principal investigator for the gamma ray spectrometer suite at the University of Arizona, Tucson. "I am extremely excited," he said.

Late last year, scientists got what appeared to some as a whiff of a water signature coming from Mars.

Data collected during tests of Odyssey's neutron spectrometer -- a component of the gamma ray spectrometer suite -- showed signs of hydrogen. But hydrogen may or may not mean water. Hydrogen is one component of water, but also exists alone and in other substances.

Yet there was an intriguing possibility stemming from the preliminary data. The hydrogen signature could indicate that water ice was detected a scant 3 feet (1-meter) below Mars' surface. Such a find would bolster the prospect for biology taking hold on Mars, and help support future human expeditions of the red planet.

"Odyssey is in excellent shape. Things have gone extremely well," said Bob Berry, chief system engineer for space exploration systems, and Odyssey's program manager for Lockheed Martin Astronautics in Denver, Colorado.

Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, developing and building the orbiter.

Odyssey's science mission began on February 19, at the start of its 816th swing around Mars, Berry said. "We're into the mapping now…and now is when the scientists have to earn their keep."

"The scientists are elated with the quality of the pictures," Berry told SPACE.com. Even as Odyssey makes nighttime passes over the planet, infrared images relayed by the probe are detailing features not visible when cameras are focused on the sunny side of the globe, he said.

"We've got some new information that will be coming back for the first time on Odyssey," Berry said.

Berry said that troubleshooting is underway on the Martian Radiation Environment Experiment (MARIE). That device still draws power, but stopped communicating with Odyssey some months ago. A special team has been hard at work looking at ways to revive the experiment.

"There is some thought that it could be problem that might basically cure itself over time," Berry said.

So far, so good, Berry said, with Odyssey having all the redundancy that was built into the spacecraft from the start. Assuming that all stays on track, he added, the probe's remaining fuel may allow it operate for twice as long as first planned.

"We were planning for two Mars years. That's about three and three-quarters Earth years. So we can have a mission twice as long as that if everything goes well," Berry said.
www.space.com

The most recent great floods on Mars took place in the recent geologic past, not billions of years ago as previously estimated, according to scientists.

More water than that contained in Lake Erie likely gushed over the surface about 10 million years ago, said planetary geologists investigating photographs from a satellite in Mars orbit.

The liquid surge came from fissures near the martian equator, the same cracks that have issued forth great gobs of lava, the research team said.

"This is a completely different water release mechanism than previously studied on Mars," said Devon Burr, a doctoral student in geosciences at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Poring over images from the Mars Global Surveyor, Burr and University of Arizona professor Alfred McEwen found strong evidence that catastrophic floods beset the lava-covered Cerberus Plains.

Comparable deluges left behind similar landforms on Earth, according to the Arizona pair, who with NASA scientist Susan Sakimoto reported their findings in a recent edition of the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

In the 1970s, satellite pictures from the Viking spacecraft convinced many scientists that colossal water floods carved great gullies on Mars.

But those deluges were thought to have taken place more than 2 billion years in the past. Burr and McEwen's study of a valley system just north of the equator shattered the timeline for major water activity on Mars.

"Athabasca Valles is an almost new component in the martian hydrological cycle," Burr said. "The water here gushed from volcano-tectonic fissures. While the fissures themselves may be older, the latest eruption of the water was probably only about 10 million years ago."

Such geothermal sites on Mars could still be active, providing the cold, dry planet with periodic doses of heat and water, McEwen said.

www.cnn.com

MARS NEEDS WOMEN

Mars Oddessy Finds a new Mars

Huh? What happened to the old one? Someone replaced it without informing us? Dang it, I hate it when that happens. Just lke they swapped the moon out with a replacement back in '87.

It's a conspiracy, I tells ya!




I intend to be the first Frog on Mars.

Evidence of Plentiful Water on Mars


PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - In a discovery (news - web sites) that bolsters the theory that life once existed on Mars, NASA (news - web sites)'s Mars Odyssey spacecraft has found evidence that vast quantities of ice exist on the Red Planet.

New data from the Odyssey presented Friday at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Jet Propulsion Laboratory indicated the possible presence of water in the top 3 feet of the planet's surface, in the form of ice mixed with dirt, dust and rock.

Scientists have long known that there is water on Mars. But the suggestion that it is present in such quantities could bolster the theory that the planet could have harbored life. Water is considered a necessary ingredient for life.

"The signal we have been getting loud and clear is there is a lot of ice on Mars," said William Boynton, of the University of Arizona, Tucson. Boynton is chief scientist of the spacecraft's instrument that measures the abundance of hydrogen, a likely indicator of the presence of water.

Scientists believe the water probably accounts for a small percent of Mars' surface, but covers a huge area that stretches from the planet's frozen southern polar cap northward to about 60 degrees south latitude.

"The results are exceeding our expectations," said Roger Gibbs, the Odyssey deputy project manager for JPL, which manages the $300 million mission.



link (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020302/ap_on_sc/mars_odyssey_4&cid=624)

This is incredible news!

This means huge amunts....for future colonization attempts also...

With large amounts of native water who knows what kind of terraforming scheme they could come up with...

Ribbit

They’ll call it ‘Earth North’ and treat it as a snooty new place to live. North because in our Northern-Hemisphere centric civilizations (South America and Africa aren’t big on space exploration...maybe Australia has some) North means colder, hence further from Sun = North. The crops they grow there will be delicacies that require chill time, and the lower gravity will mean it’s easier to get around. Now, if we later do the same to Venus, they’ll call it ‘Earth South’ and that will be where the ‘rabble’ live. Not as much gravity as Earth but more than Earth North. Was a lot harder to clean up and that awful sulfur smell may never go away, but the rabble won’t mind the stink. Hotter so it’s less comfortable. Crops grown there will be the big ones that require lots of help in doing, so the working class will end up there.

Yeah, that’s what’s coming. You watch.

*croak*