2001 Mars Odyssey

Spacecraft· NASA / JPLactive

2001 Mars Odyssey — NASA's longest-running Mars mission, mapping the planet's minerals and near-surface ice from orbit since 2001 and serving as a data relay for the rovers on the surface.

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Key facts

Current speed

27.6 km/s

Distance from Sun

1.5 AU

Status

Active

Launched

2001

Mission & specifications

Mission

Operator: NASA / JPL
Launched: April 7, 2001
Status: Active

Trajectory

Current speed: 27.6 km/s
Distance from the Sun: 1.5 AU
Distance from Earth: 1.9 AU
Distance from Mars: 2,508,537 km

Mission

2001 Mars Odyssey holds a quiet record: it is the longest-operating spacecraft ever to circle another planet. Named with a nod to Arthur C. Clarke, it reached Mars in October 2001 and has been working there ever since — for more than two decades. Its early discovery reshaped Mars exploration. Odyssey's instruments detected vast amounts of hydrogen just below the surface, the signature of enormous reserves of water ice locked in the soil, especially near the poles. That finding — water, the prerequisite for life and for human survival — helped steer a generation of later missions toward the question of whether Mars was ever habitable. Odyssey also mapped the planet's minerals in infrared, charting where ancient water once altered the rocks. Its most indispensable role, though, is humbler: it is a relay. Much of the data sent home by NASA's rovers — Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity and Perseverance — is radioed up to Odyssey as it passes overhead and then forwarded to Earth, making the veteran orbiter a backbone of the Mars communications network. Decades after launch, carefully husbanding its last reserves of fuel, Odyssey keeps watch over the red planet — a patient survivor that turned a primary mission of a few years into an era of its own.

2001Launch toward MarsLaunch
NASA's long-lived orbiter departs for the red planet.
2001Mars orbit insertionArrival
Odyssey enters orbit to begin what becomes a record-breaking mission.
2002Water ice beneath the surfaceMilestone
Detects vast hydrogen deposits — buried water ice — across the high latitudes.
2004Relay for the roversMilestone
Becomes the data relay that carries most of the surface rovers' findings home.

Images

2001 Mars Odyssey at the red planet — NASA / JPL / Corby Waste (public domain) · Wikimedia Commons

First THEMIS Image of Mars — NASA/JPL/Arizona State University · NASA Image Library

Odyssey over Mars South Pole Artist Concept — NASA/JPL · NASA Image Library

Odyssey over Martian Sunrise Artist Concept — NASA/JPL · NASA Image Library

In the Spacecraft Assembly and Encapsulation Facility 2, workers place a protective barrier around the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft — NASA/KSC · NASA Image Library

The 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft leaves the KSC Shuttle Landing Facility on the bed of a transport trailer — NASA/KSC · NASA Image Library

Images from open archives · credit shown per image