On September 21, 2014, NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft successfully entered the orbit of the Red Planet after completing an interplanetary journey of 10 months and 711 million km.
This image shows an artist concept of NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
Launched on November 18, 2013, the MAVEN mission is part of NASA’s Mars Scout program. It will explore the Mars’ upper atmosphere, ionosphere and interactions with the Sun and solar wind.
“It’s taken 11 years from the original concept for MAVEN to now having a spacecraft in orbit at Mars. I’m delighted to be here safely and successfully, and looking forward to starting our science mission,” said Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator of the University of Colorado, Boulder.
John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator of NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC, added: “MAVEN will complement NASA’s other Martian robotic explorers – and those of our partners around the globe – to answer some fundamental questions about Mars and life beyond Earth.”
MAVEN’s orbit will be elliptical. At its closest point to the planet, it will be 150 km above the surface. At this altitude, it will pass through the upper atmosphere on each orbit and can sample the gas and ion composition directly.
At its highest point, the spacecraft will be more than 6,000 km above the surface and can carry out ultraviolet imaging of the entire planet.
This combination of detailed point measurements and global imaging is a powerful way to understand the properties of the Mars’ upper atmosphere.
The altitude in the MAVEN orbit will be lowered for five deep-dip campaigns during the mission.
In each deep dip, the spacecraft will take measurements down to an altitude of 125 km. These measurements will provide information down to the top of the well-mixed lower atmosphere, giving researchers a full profile of the top of the atmosphere.
The spacecraft will make measurements in all regions of ‘near-Mars’ space.
These measurements will allow scientists to characterize the current state of the upper atmosphere and ionosphere, determine the rates of loss of gas to space today, and extrapolate backward in time in order to determine the total loss to space through time.
“This was a very big day for MAVEN. We’re very excited to join the constellation of spacecraft in orbit at Mars and on the surface of the Red Planet,” said David Mitchell, MAVEN project manager from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland.
