NASA Spacecraft Arrives at Mars to Probe Mysteries of Red Planet's Air

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NASA Spacecraft Arrives at Mars to Probe Mysteries of Red Planet's Air
SPACE.com
by Mike Wall, Senior Writer  33 minutes ago



NASA's MAVEN spacecraft successfully entered orbit around Mars on Sept. 21, 2014.



Mars has welcomed a new robotic visitor from Earth.

After a 10-month journey through deep space, NASA's MAVEN probe arrived in Mars orbit late Sunday (Sept. 21), on a mission to help scientists figure out why the Red Planet changed from a relatively warm and wet place in the ancient past to the cold, arid world it is today.

MAVEN, whose name is short for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, fired its engines in a crucial 30-minute braking burn Sunday night, slowing down enough to be captured by the planet's gravity around 10:24 p.m. EDT (0224 GMT Monday, Sept. 22).

"Congratulations! MAVEN is now in Mars orbit," MAVEN navigation team member Dave Folta, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, announced to a round of cheers from mission control.

MAVEN joins three other operational probes in Mars orbit — NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), and the European Space Agency's Mars Express. NASA also has two rovers actively exploring the planet's surface: the golf-cart-size Opportunity and its younger, bigger cousin, Curiosity.

And Mars orbit should get even more crowded just a few days from now. India's first-ever Red Planet effort, the $74 million Mars Orbiter Mission, is due to arrive Tuesday night (Sept. 23).


Studying Mars' atmosphere

The $671 million MAVEN mission blasted off as planned on Nov. 18, 2013, though not without a bit of prelaunch drama.

Liftoff preparations were frozen when the government shutdown went into effect on Oct. 1, 2013, sending ripples of anxiety through the MAVEN team and the global planetary science community. But NASA granted MAVEN an emergency exception a few days later, getting things back on track. (The shutdown ended on Oct. 17, 2013.)

MAVEN is the first NASA spacecraft dedicated to studying the upper atmosphere of Mars, NASA officials said. The mission will use MAVEN's three suites of scientific instruments to measure and characterize gas escape from the Martian atmosphere, which was once relatively thick but is now just 1 percent as dense as that of Earth at sea level.

MAVEN's observations should help scientists get a better handle on what happened to the water that flowed and sloshed across Mars billions of years ago — whether it escaped into space or sank into the planet's crust, said mission principal investigator Bruce Jakosky, of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

"What we're going to be doing is studying the top of the atmosphere as a way of understanding the extent to which stripping of gas out of the atmosphere to space may have been the driving mechanism behind climate change," Jakosky said at a news conference Wednesday (Sept. 17). "We should be able to get enough measurements to tell us what happened to the water, what happened to the carbon dioxide."

The mission should shed light on the history of Mars' ability to support life, he added.

"We're trying to understand the context in which life might have existed," Jakosky said. "Any life on Mars interacts with its planetary environment; we need to know what that environment is, and how it's evolved over time."

MAVEN's prime science mission is slated to last one year, but the probe has enough fuel to keep making observations for a while if its mission gets extended, team members said.

MAVEN will also serve as a vital communications link between ground controllers and NASA's Mars rovers. In fact, that's the main reason NASA deemed the mission worthy of an emergency exception during the government shutdown. Opportunity and Curiosity are currently supported by Mars Odyssey and MRO, which launched in 2001 and 2005, respectively, and NASA has no Red Planet relay orbiters on the books beyond MAVEN.

"MAVEN is critically important for us for many reasons, not the least of which is it will serve as backup communications for the rovers on the surface," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden told Space.com.

MAVEN is one of several missions that should help NASA prepare for an eventual manned mission to Mars, which the agency hopes to mount by the mid-2030s, Bolden added. That mission list includes the active rovers and orbiters now studying Mars, MAVEN and the agency's Mars Insight mission, set to launch in 2016, and the Mars Rover 2020 mission.


Getting to work

MAVEN's science mission will not start right away. The probe's handlers will spend the next six weeks checking out MAVEN's instruments and maneuvering the probe from its long, looping initial orbit down to a 4.5-hour final orbit, which will bring MAVEN as close as 93 miles (150 kilometers) to Mars and take it as far away as 3,850 miles (6,200 km) from the Red Planet.

But MAVEN will make some observations during this checkout period: The probe will look on as Comet Siding Spring buzzes Mars on Oct. 19, coming within just 82,000 miles (132,000 km) of the planet. (For reference, Earth's moon orbits at an average distance of 238,900 miles, or 384,400 km).

"I'm told that the odds of having an approach that close to Mars are about one in a million years," Jakosky said. "So it's really luck that we get the opportunity here."

MAVEN will study the comet and Mars' upper atmosphere for five days around the flyby, he added.

"We should learn a lot about the upper atmosphere from this natural experiment, watching the perturbation from the impact of [cometary] gas and dust," Jakosky said. "And we're hoping to learn about the comet as well."

Any material potentially shed by Siding Spring poses minimal risk to MAVEN and other probes circling the Red Planet, NASA officials have said. There are no worries at all for Opportunity and Curiosity, who enjoy the protection of Mars' atmosphere.   


http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-spacecraft-arrives-mars-probe-mysteries-red-planets-024129918.html

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NASA's Maven explorer arrives at Mars after year
Associated Press
By MARCIA DUNN  30 minutes ago



In this artist concept provided by NASA, the MAVEN spacecraft approaches Mars on a mission to study its upper atmosphere. When it arrives on Sunday Sept. 21, 2014, MAVEN's 442 million mile journey from Earth will culminate with a dramatic engine burn, pulling the spacecraft into an elliptical orbit. It's designed to circle the planet, not land. (AP Photo/NASA)



CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA's Maven spacecraft arrived at Mars late Sunday after a 442 million-mile journey that began nearly a year ago.

The robotic explorer fired its brakes and successfully slipped into orbit around the red planet, officials confirmed.

"This is such an incredible night," said John Grunsfeld, NASA's chief for science missions.

Now the real work begins for the $671 million mission, the first dedicated to studying Mars' upper atmosphere.

Flight controllers in Colorado will spend the next six weeks adjusting Maven's altitude and checking its science instruments. Then Maven will start probing the upper atmosphere of Mars. The spacecraft will conduct its observations from orbit; it's not meant to land.

Scientists believe the Martian atmosphere holds clues as to how Earth's neighbor went from being warm and wet billions of years ago to cold and dry. That early wet world may have harbored microbial life, a tantalizing question yet to be answered.



In this Friday, Sept. 27, 2013 file photo, technicians work on NASA’s next Mars-bound spacecraft, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN), at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. NASA’s Maven spacecraft will reach the red planet in September 2014 following a 10-month journey spanning more than 440 million miles. If all goes well, Maven will hit the brakes and slip into Martian orbit Sunday, Sept. 21, 2014. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)


NASA launched Maven last November from Cape Canaveral, the 10th U.S. mission sent to orbit the red planet. Three earlier ones failed, and until the official word came of success late Sunday night, the entire team was on edge.

"I don't have any fingernails any more, but we've made it," said Colleen Hartman, deputy director for science at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "It's incredible."

The spacecraft was clocking more than 10,000 mph when it hit the brakes for the so-called orbital insertion, a half-hour process. The world had to wait 12 minutes to learn the outcome, once it occurred, because of the lag in spacecraft signals given the 138 million miles between the two planets on Sunday.

"Based on observed navigation data, congratulations, Maven is now in Mars orbit," came the official announcement. Flight controllers applauded the news and shook hands; laughter filled the previously tense-filled room.

Maven joins three spacecraft already circling Mars, two American and one European. And the traffic jam isn't over: India's first interplanetary probe, Mangalyaan, will reach Mars in two days and also aim for orbit.



In this Nov. 18, 2013 file photo, NASA's Maven, short for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, with a capital "N'' in EvolutioN, atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, lifts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla. NASA’s Maven spacecraft will reach the red planet in September 2014 following a 10-month journey spanning more than 440 million miles. If all goes well, Maven will hit the brakes and slip into Martian orbit Sunday, Sept. 21, 2014. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)


Maven's chief investigator, Bruce Jakosky of the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder, hopes to learn where all the water on Mars went, along with the carbon dioxide that once comprised an atmosphere thick enough to hold moist clouds.

The gases may have been stripped away by the sun early in Mars' existence, escaping into the upper atmosphere and out into space. Maven's observations should be able to extrapolate back in time, Jakosky said.

Maven — short for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission — will spend at least a year collecting data. That's a full Earth year, half a Martian one. Its orbit will dip as low as 78 miles above the Martian surface as its eight instruments make measurements. The craft is as long as a school bus, from solar wingtip to tip, and as hefty as an SUV.

Maven will have a rare brush with a comet next month.

The nucleus of newly discovered Comet Siding Spring will pass 82,000 miles from Mars on Oct. 19. The risk of comet dust damaging Maven is low, officials said, and the spacecraft should be able to observe Siding Spring as a science bonus.

Lockheed Martin Corp., Maven's maker, is operating the mission from its control center at Littleton, Colorado.

This is NASA's 21st shot at Mars and the first since the Curiosity rover landed on the red planet in 2012. Just this month, Curiosity arrived at its prime science target, a mountain named Sharp, ripe for drilling. The Opportunity rover is also still active a decade after landing.

All these robotic scouts are paving the way for the human explorers that NASA hopes to send in the 2030s. The space agency wants to understand as much about the red planet as possible before it sends people there.

___

Online:

NASA: http://mars.nasa.gov/maven/

University of Colorado: http://lasp.colorado.edu/home/maven/


http://news.yahoo.com/nasas-maven-explorer-arriving-mars-075509460.html

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NASA robotic probe slips into orbit around Mars
Reuters
By Irene Klotz  9 minutes ago



CAPE CANAVERAL Fla (Reuters) - A NASA robotic spacecraft fired its braking rockets on Sunday, ending a 10-month journey to put itself into orbit around Mars and begin a hunt for the planet’s lost water.

After traveling 442 million miles (71 million km), the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, or MAVEN, spacecraft fired its six rocket thrusters, trimming its speed from 12,800 mph (20,600 kph) to 10,000 mph (16,093 kph).

The 33-minute engine firing left MAVEN in the clutches of Mars’ gravity as it flew over the planet’s north pole and slipped into a looping 236-mile by 27,713-mile (380-km by 44,600-km) high orbit.

"I don’t have any fingernails anymore, but we made it," Colleen Hartman, NASA deputy director for science at Goddard Space Spaceflight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said during a NASA Television broadcast of MAVEN’s arrival.

Flight control teams burst into cheers and applause as radio signals from MAVEN confirmed it was in Mars orbit at 10:25 p.m. EDT/0225 GMT. Over the next several weeks, MAVEN will lower its altitude until it reaches its 93-mile by 3,900-mile (150-km by 6,200-km) operational orbit.

MAVEN will study how the solar wind strips away atoms and molecules in the planet’s upper atmosphere, a process that scientists believe has been underway for eons.

"By learning the processes that are going on today we hope to extrapolate back and learn about the history of Mars," MAVEN scientist John Clarke, with Boston University, said in an interview on NASA Television.

Scientists strongly suspect that Mars was not always the cold and dry desert it is today. The planet’s surface is riddled with what appear to be dry riverbeds and minerals that form in the presence of water.

But for water to pool on the planet’s surface, its atmosphere would have had to be much denser and thicker than it is today. Mars’ atmosphere is now about 100 times thinner than Earth’s.

Scientists suspect Mars lost 99 percent of its atmosphere over millions of years as the planet cooled and its magnetic field decayed, allowing charged particles in the solar wind to strip away water and other atmospheric gases.

Learning about how Mars lost its water is key to understanding if the planet most like Earth in the solar system ever could have supported life. The $671-million MAVEN mission is scheduled to last one year. The spacecraft joins two other NASA orbiters, two NASA rovers and a European orbiter currently working at Mars.

A seventh Mars probe owned by India is scheduled to arrive on Wednesday.

(Editing by Clarence Fernandez)


http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-robotic-probe-slips-orbit-around-mars-031707043.html

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NASA's MAVEN Spacecraft Nails Mars 'Orbit Insertion'
The Huffington Post
By  Macrina Cooper-White | Posted:  09/21/2014 11:17 pm EDT    Updated:  8 minutes ago



This artist's concept shows the MAVEN spacecraft in orbit around the Red Planet. | NASA/Goddard



Welcome to Mars, Maven!

After an epic 10-month, 442-million mile journey, NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft has finally reached the red planet.

“This was a very big day for MAVEN,” David Mitchell, a project manager for the MAVEN mission at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said in a written statement. “We’re very excited to join the constellation of spacecraft in orbit at Mars and on the surface of the Red Planet... Congratulations to the team for a job well done today.”

The spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Nov. 18, 2013. It entered into Mars' orbit at 10:24 p.m. EDT on Sept. 21.

MAVEN is the first mission to study Mars' upper atmosphere. Over the next six weeks, plans call for MAVEN to test its instruments and move into its final elliptical orbit, where it will study gases in the Martian atmosphere and the rate at which they escape into outer space. Scientists hope MAVEN data will give them new insights into the evolution of the Martian climate and confirm whether Mars was once able to support life.

“MAVEN is another NASA robotic scientific explorer that is paving the way for our journey to Mars,” Jim Green, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in a written statement. “Together, robotics and humans will pioneer the Red Planet and the solar system to help answer some of humanity’s fundamental questions about life beyond Earth.”

MAVEN is far from being the only probe orbiting Mars. The agency's Mars Odyssey spacecraft has been circling the red planet since 2001, and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been in orbit since 2006. The European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter is there, and India's Mars Orbiter Mission is on the way.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/21/nasa-maven-reaches-mars_n_5851308.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592