NASA Mars Orbiter Captures Volcano Peeking Above Morning Cloud Tops

71 pointsposted 6 months ago
by rbanffy
(jpl.nasa.gov)

9 Comments

nnig

6 months ago

nah man

nnig

6 months ago

nigg

perihelions

6 months ago

This orbiter (Odyssey) is going imminently to be turned off[0]. It's orbiting Mars right now, but JPL is about to lose funding to keep communicating with it.

(I think a sizeable part of HN would call this an off-topic tangent, and prefer not to see it posted on HN. Philip K. Dick defined reality as "that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away". You can inhabit whatever reality you prefer to inhabit, but sooner or later these (nasa.gov) stories you do prefer to read on HN, are all going to vanish from HN, beliefs and preferences notwithstanding).

[0] https://www.science.org/content/article/dozens-active-and-pl... ("...kill off several spacecraft orbiting Mars, including Mars Odyssey and Maven...")

marcusverus

6 months ago

Per the wiki:

> As of March 2025, [Odyssey] is still collecting data, and is estimated to have enough propellant to function until the end of 2025.

pandemic_region

6 months ago

Once turned off, can it be turned on again later when new funding is found?

close04

6 months ago

Maybe but not a guarantee. Losing funding usually means the people familiar with the mission are going away, it's possible that some of the needed ground equipment also gets decommissioned. Bringing it all back once it's gone is probably never a rosy business case.

user

6 months ago

[deleted]

user

6 months ago

[deleted]