Craft Dips Into Mars’ Atmosphere

NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft took its first dips into the Martian atmosphere over the weekend, continuing the process of slowly easing into a circular orbit around the planet.

By January, if all goes well, after several more passes through the atmosphere--a process known as aerobraking--the Odyssey will have moved from its current, highly elliptical 18-hour-36-minute orbit around Mars into a circular 21/2-hour orbit about 250 miles above the planet’s surface. That will allow it to begin its scientific work.

The Odyssey was sent up to map Mars’ distribution of minerals and chemicals and provide daily Martian weather reports. It also will be seeking out frozen deposits of water and hot springs that might exist on the planet. If water ever existed there, that could mean life existed on Mars too.