Comparison of Martian Radiation Environment with International Space Station
This graphic shows the radiation dose equivalent as measured by
Odyssey's Martian radiation environment experiment at Mars and by
instruments aboard the International Space Station, for the 11-month
period from April 2002 through February 2003. The accumulated total in
Mars orbit is about two and a half times larger than that aboard the
Space Station. Averaged over this time period, about 10 percent of the
dose equivalent at Mars is due to solar particles, although a 30 percent
contribution from solar particles was seen in July 2002, when the sun
was particularly active.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars
Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.
The radiation experiment was provided by the Johnson Space Center,
Houston, Tex. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, Colo., is the prime
contractor for the project, and developed and built the orbiter.
Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and
from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Credit: NASA/JPL/JSC
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