2001 Mars Odyssey Mission Summary

The 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft, now in orbit at Mars, will observe the Martian surface at infrared and visible wavelengths to determine surface mineralogy and morphology, acquire global gamma ray and neutron observations for a full Martian year, and study the Mars radiation environment from orbit. The science objectives of this mission are to: (1) globally map the elemental composition of the surface, (2) determine the abundance of hydrogen in the shallow subsurface, (3) acquire high spatial and spectral resolution images of the surface mineralogy, (4) provide information on the morphology of the surface, and (5) characterize the Martian near-space radiation environment as related to radiation-induced risk to human explorers. To accomplish these objectives, the 2001 Mars Odyssey science payload includes a Gamma Ray Spectrometer (GRS), a multi-spectral Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS), and a radiation detector, the Martian Radiation Environment Experiment (MARIE). THEMIS and MARIE are mounted on the spacecraft with THEMIS pointed at nadir. GRS is a suite of three instruments: a Gamma Subsystem (GSS), a Neutron Spectrometer (NS) and a High-Energy Neutron Detector (HEND). The HEND and NS instruments are mounted on the spacecraft body while the GSS is on a 6-m boom. Some science data were collected during the cruise and aerobraking phases of the mission before the prime mission started. THEMIS acquired infrared and visible images of the Earth-Moon system and of the southern hemisphere of Mars. MARIE monitored the radiation environment during cruise. The GRS collected calibration data during cruise and aerobraking. Early GRS observations in Mars orbit indicated a hydrogen-rich layer in the upper meter of the subsurface in the Southern Hemisphere. Also, atmospheric densities, scale heights, temperatures, and pressures were observed by spacecraft accelerometers during aerobraking as the spacecraft skimmed the upper portions of the Martian atmosphere. This provided the first in-situ evidence of winter polar warming in the Mars upper atmosphere. The prime mission for 2001 Mars Odyssey began in February 2002 and will continue until August 2004. During this prime mission, the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft will also provide radio relays for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and European landers in early 2004. Science data from 2001 Mars Odyssey instruments will be provided to the science community via NASA’s Planetary Data System (PDS). The first PDS release of Odyssey data was in October 2002; subsequent releases occur every 3 months.     

An overview of radar soundings of the martian ionosphere from the Mars Express spacecraft

The Mars Express spacecraft carries a low-frequency radar called MARSIS (Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding) that is designed to study the subsurface and ionosphere of Mars. In this paper, we give an overview of the ionospheric sounding results after approximately one year of operation in orbit around Mars. Several types of ionospheric echoes are commonly observed. These include vertical echoes caused by specular reflection from the horizontally stratified ionosphere; echoes from a second layer in the topside ionosphere, possibly associated with O⁺ ions; oblique echoes from upward bulges in the ionosphere; and a variety of other echoes that are poorly understood. The vertical echoes provide electron density profiles that are in reasonable agreement with the Chapman photo-equilibrium model of planetary ionospheres. On the dayside of Mars the maximum electron density is approximately 2 × 10⁵ cm⁻³. On the nightside the echoes are often very diffuse and highly irregular, with maximum electron densities less than 10⁴ cm⁻³. Surface reflections are sometimes observed in the same frequency range as the diffuse echoes, suggesting that small isolated holes exist in the nightside ionosphere, possibly similar to those that occur on the nightside of Venus. The oblique echoes arise from upward bulges in the ionosphere in regions where the crustal magnetic field of Mars is strong and nearly vertical. The bulges tend to be elongated in the horizontal direction and located in regions between oppositely directed arch-like structures in the crustal magnetic field. The nearly vertical magnetic field lines in the region between the arches are thought to connect into the solar wind, thereby allowing solar wind electrons to heat the lower levels of the ionosphere, with an attendant increase in the scale height and electron density.     

Observations of Vertical Reflections from the Topside Martian Ionosphere

The Martian ionosphere has for the first time been probed by a low frequency topside radio wave sounder experiment (MARSIS) (Gurnett et al., 2005). The density profiles in the Martian ionosphere have for the first time been observed for solar zenith angles less than 48 degrees. The sounder spectrograms typically have a single trace of echoes, which are controlled by reflections from the ionosphere in the direction of nadir. With the local density at the spacecraft derived from the sounder measurements and using the lamination technique the spectrograms are inverted to electron density profiles. The measurements yield electron density profiles from the sub-solar region to past the terminator. The maximum density varies in time with the solar rotation period, indicating control of the densities by solar ionizing radiation. Electron density increases associated with solar flares were observed. The maximum electron density varies with solar zenith angle as predicted by theory. The altitude profile of electron densities between the maximum density and about 170m altitude is well approximated by a classic Chapman layer. The neutral scale height is close to 10 to 13 km. At altitudes above 180 km the densities deviate from and are larger than inferred by the Chapman layer. At altitudes above the exobase the density decrease was approximated by an exponential function with scale heights between 24 and 65 km. The densities in the top side ionosphere above the exobase tends to be larger than the densities extrapolated from the Chapman layer fitted to the measurements at lower altitudes, implying more efficient upward diffusion above the collision dominated photo equilibrium region.