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The shape of 2001 Mars Odyssey is anything but uniform, but its size can most easily be visualized
by mentally placing the spacecraft inside of a box. Pictured this way, the box would measure 2.2 meters
(7.2 feet) long, 1.7 meters (5.6 feet) tall and 2.6 meters (8.5 feet) wide. At launch Odyssey weighed
725.0 kilograms (1598.4 pounds), including the 331.8-kilogram (731.5-pound) dry spacecraft with all of
its subsystems, 348.7 kilograms (768.8 pounds) of fuel and 44.5 kilograms (98.1 pounds) of instruments.
Hi Res (2.5 MB)
The framework of the spacecraft is composed mostly of aluminum and some titanium. The use of
titanium, a lighter and more expensive metal, is an efficient way of conserving mass while retaining
strength. Odyssey's metal structure is similar to that used in the construction of high-performance
and fighter aircraft.
Most systems on the spacecraft are fully redundant. This means that, in the event of a device
failure, there is a backup system to compensate. The main exception is a memory card that collects
imaging data from the thermal emission imaging system.
More detailed information about the spacecraft:
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