The Mars Space Flight Facility is located at

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

Tempe, Arizona , settlement_type = City , named_for = Vale of Tempe , image_skyline = Tempeskyline3.jpg , imagesize = 260px , image_caption = Tempe skyline as se ...

. The facility is a research center in Arizona State University's School for Earth and Space Exploration. Scientists, researchers, and students there specialize in using instruments on spacecraft at

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...

for remote sensing research primarily concerning the geology and mineralogy of the planet. The instruments based at the facility include the

Thermal Emission Imaging System The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) is a camera on board the 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter. It images Mars in the visible and infrared parts of the electromagnetic spectrum in order to determine the thermal properties of the surface and ...

(THEMIS) on NASA's

Mars Odyssey ''2001 Mars Odyssey'' is a robotic spacecraft orbiting the planet Mars. The project was developed by NASA, and contracted out to Lockheed Martin, with an expected cost for the entire mission of US$297 million. Its mission is to use spectro ...

orbiter and two Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometers (Mini-TES) on the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. (A full-size Mars rover model, bedded on reddish-brown sand, dominates the building's lobby.) Before the loss of NASA's

Mars Global Surveyor ''Mars Global Surveyor'' (MGS) was an American robotic space probe developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and launched November 1996. MGS was a global mapping mission that examined the entire planet, from the ionosphere down through t ...

in November 2006, the facility also operated the

Thermal Emission Spectrometer The Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) is an instrument on board Mars Global Surveyor. TES collects two types of data, hyperspectral thermal infrared data from 6 to 50 micrometres (μm) and bolometric visible-NIR (0.3 to 2.9 μm) measurements. T ...

(TES) aboard the spacecraft. On May 25, 2011, NASA announced a New Frontiers Mission,

OSIRIS-REx OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) is a NASA asteroid-study and sample-return mission. The mission's primary goal is to obtain a sample of at least from 101955 Bennu, a carbona ...

, to a carbonaceous asteroid. The mission will include OTES, an updated and modified version of the Mini-TES Spectrometer from the MER missions. The facility's director is Dr.

Phil Christensen Philip Russel Christensen (born 1953) is a geologist whose research interests focus on the composition, physical properties, processes, and morphology of planetary surfaces, with an emphasis on Mars and the Earth. He is currently a Regents' Prof ...

; he is the principal investigator of the

THEMIS In Greek mythology and religion, Themis (; grc, Θέμις, Themis, justice, law, custom) is one of the twelve Titan children of Gaia and Uranus, and the second wife of Zeus. She is the goddess and personification of justice, divine order, fai ...

instrument, a co-investigator on the

Mars Exploration Rover NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission was a robotic space mission involving two Mars rovers, '' Spirit'' and '' Opportunity'', exploring the planet Mars. It began in 2003 with the launch of the two rovers to explore the Martian surface ...

project, and the principal investigator of the Mini-TES instrument on board the rovers. He was also the principal investigator for

(TES). In addition, the facility houses the Mars Education Program, which provides workshops, field trips, and other opportunities for teachers and students to join with scientists in Mars exploration.

References

External links

Mars Space Flight Facility homepage

Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) homepage

Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES) homepage

Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) homepage

NASA/ASU Mars Education Program home page

OSIRIS-REx Thermal Emission Spectrometer website at ASU
{{Coord, 33.4179902, -111.9360869, display=title Arizona State University Buildings and structures in Tempe, Arizona Education in Maricopa County, Arizona