Estimating the fuel supply on Odyssey, a decades-old shuttle without a fuel check, is no simple errand.
Since NASA sent off the 2001 Mars Odyssey Orbiter to the Red Planet nearly a while ago, the space apparatus has circled around Mars multiple times. That is about what could be compared to 1.37 billion miles (2.21 billion kilometers), a distance that has required incredibly cautious administration of the rocket’s fuel supply. This accomplishment is even more great given that Odyssey has no fuel check; engineers have needed to depend on math, all things considered.
Their work has assisted Odyssey with building a logical heritage: the rocket has spread minerals across the Martian surface, permitting researchers to all the more likely figure out the planet’s set of experiences. Odyssey has found ice stores that could be utilized by future space explorers. Concentrated radiation could hurt those equivalent space explorers. Furthermore, it has explored potential landing locales for missions to come. Odyssey is likewise among a little group of stars of orbiters that transfers information back to Earth from NASA’s wanderers and landers (nearly 150 gigabytes to date, and then some).
Be that as it may, last year, Odyssey looked as though it very well may be running out of fuel: computations demonstrated its hydrazine fuel was a lot lower than anticipated.
Odyssey was sent off in 2001 with very nearly 500 pounds (225.3 kilograms) of hydrazine force. Since there’s no fuel measure, engineers have utilized different ways of gathering how much hydrazine the shuttle has consumed over time. One method for estimating Odyssey’s fuel is to apply intensity to the shuttle’s two charge tanks and watch what amount of time they require to arrive at a specific temperature. Likewise, like a tea kettle, an almost empty gas tank would warm up quicker than an entire one.
For over 20 years, NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter has been concentrating on the Martian surface. In 2006, the mission’s Warm Outflow Imaging Framework instrument caught this picture of sand hills crawling across the floor of a spot called Bunge Cavity.
That is, as a matter of fact, what seemed to happen with a fuel gauge performed on the Odyssey in the middle of 2021. The math appeared to show that around 11 pounds (5 kilograms) of force stayed accessible — not exactly what the mission’s demonstration had anticipated. One more gauge in January 2022 showed just 6 pounds (2.8 kilograms) of hydrazine remaining.
In the event that the figures were precise, Odyssey would be running on empty in under a year. Either the space apparatus had encountered a disappointment, similar to a break of some sort, or something was off in the group’s estimations.
Long periods of testing and extraordinary examination followed. Subsequent to concentrating on the secret of the “missing” fuel, mission engineers have learned new things about how the maturing rocket’s mind-boggling fuel framework acts in flight. Their decision: The orbiter ought to really have enough to endure through the end of 2025.
How Odyssey utilizes hydrazine
Odyssey doesn’t need to bother with a ton of hydrazine to make due with some random day. Sunlight-based chargers power its frameworks, while three decisively positioned response wheels assist the orbiter with pointing its science instruments at the Martian surface. As the response wheels turn inside the rocket transport, or body, they create force that makes Odyssey move the other way.
“These response wheels need to cooperate to keep up with the rocket’s pointing,” said Odyssey’s main goal supervisor, Jared Call of NASA’s Fly Impetus Lab in Southern California. “Yet, with Odyssey finishing a full circle every circle, you really want a method for emptying the rising energy.”
That is where Odyssey’s hydrazine comes in. The shuttle’s engines discharge this charge in little, determined blasts to counter the response wheels’ structural force.
Collaboration
So when the group’s estimations showed that their charge supply was lower than anticipated, engineers at JPL got to work with those at Lockheed Martin Space, which assembled Odyssey, keeps up with mission activities, and gives shuttle design help.
“To start with, we needed to confirm the space apparatus was OK,” said Joseph Chase, Odyssey’s task supervisor at JPL. “Subsequent to excluding the chance of a hole or that we were consuming more fuel than assessed, we began taking a gander at our estimating cycle.”
The group concurred that they needed open-minded perspectives to survey what is going on. They got Boris Yendler, an external expert who additionally has practical experience in space apparatus force assessment.
Like all rockets, Odyssey depends on radiators to keep different parts, including the gas tanks, working in the cold of the room. Yendler puzzled over whether intensity was being added to the charge from another source on the rocket, confounding the fuel estimation. After bunches of trial and error, the group affirmed that was the situation: radiators along a fuel line interfacing the tanks were warming them surprisingly quickly, causing it to appear as though the tanks were almost unfilled.
“Our strategy for estimation was fine.” “The issue was that the liquid elements happening on board Odyssey are surprisingly confounded,” Call said.
In the wake of sorting out how much intensity wasn’t being represented in their computations, the group reasoned that Odyssey has around 9 pounds (4 kilograms) of hydrazine left. Enduring the mission for a couple of additional years is sufficient. Albeit the number could change as the group attempts to refine its estimations and work on their precision, the group is resting simpler now that they have better figured out their space apparatus.
“It’s similar to our cycle for logical revelation,” Call said. “You investigate a design framework, not understanding what you’ll find. Also, the more you look, the more you find that you didn’t anticipate.”
Provided by JPL/NASA
