Mars Odyssey: looking good

Posted by tourdemars to Mars Odyssey at April 19, 2001 12:00 PM

This morning flight controllers turned the Mars Odyssey spacecraft and pointed the thermal emission imaging system (THEMIS) instrument at the Earth and Moon to calibrate the instrument. All calibration objectives were met. Engineers are in the process of redesigning the spacecraft's cruise attitude after they noted temperature readings that were higher than expected on a high-gain antenna gimbal earlier this week. The cruise attitude points the high-gain antenna toward Earth as the spacecraft travels toward Mars.