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On September 15, 2008 NASA announced that it had selected MAVEN to be the Mars Scout 2013 mission.<ref name=selection/><ref>{{cite news | title = Thumbs Up Given for 2013 NASA Mars Orbiter | date = October 5, 2010 | url = http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-323 | work = NASA - JPL | accessdate = 2010-10-05}}</ref> There was one other finalist and eight other proposals that were competing against MAVEN.
On September 15, 2008 NASA announced that it had selected MAVEN to be the Mars Scout 2013 mission.<ref name=selection/><ref>{{cite news | title = Thumbs Up Given for 2013 NASA Mars Orbiter | date = October 5, 2010 | url = http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-323 | work = NASA - JPL | accessdate = 2010-10-05}}</ref> There was one other finalist and eight other proposals that were competing against MAVEN.


On August 2, 2013 MAVEN arrived at [[Kennedy Space Centre]] [[Florida]] to begin pre-launch preparations.<ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.nasa.gov/press/2013/august/nasa-begins-launch-preparations-for-next-mars-mission/index.html |title=NASA Begins Launch Preparations for Next Mars Mission |accessdate=2013-08-06|date=2013-08-05 |publisher=[[NASA]]}}</ref> NASA has scheduled the launch of MAVEN from the [[Cape Canaveral Air Force Station]] on November 18, 2013, using an [[Atlas V]] 401 rocket.<ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=31905 |title=NASA Awards Launch Services Contract for MAVEN Mission | accessdate=2010-10-21| publisher=SpaceRef}}</ref> The launch window is from 1:47 p.m. to 3:47 p.m. EST.<ref>{{cite web|title=MAVEN spacecraft to examine Mars atmosphere|url=http://mynews13.com/content/news/cfnews13/news/article.html/content/news/articles/cfn/2013/9/27/maven_spacecraft_to_.html|publisher=CFN13|accessdate=27 September 2013}}</ref> The probe should arrive in Mars orbit in September 2014 like India's [[Mangalyaan]] orbiter.
On August 2, 2013 MAVEN arrived at [[Kennedy Space Centre]] [[Florida]] to begin pre-launch preparations.<ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.nasa.gov/press/2013/august/nasa-begins-launch-preparations-for-next-mars-mission/index.html |title=NASA Begins Launch Preparations for Next Mars Mission |accessdate=2013-08-06|date=2013-08-05 |publisher=[[NASA]]}}</ref> NASA has scheduled the launch of MAVEN from the [[Cape Canaveral Air Force Station]] on November 18, 2013, using an [[Atlas V]] 401 rocket.<ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=31905 |title=NASA Awards Launch Services Contract for MAVEN Mission | accessdate=2010-10-21| publisher=SpaceRef}}</ref> The launch window is from 1:47 p.m. to 3:47 p.m. EST.<ref>{{cite web|title=MAVEN spacecraft to examine Mars atmosphere|url=http://mynews13.com/content/news/cfnews13/news/article.html/content/news/articles/cfn/2013/9/27/maven_spacecraft_to_.html|publisher=CFN13|accessdate=27 September 2013}}</ref> The probe should arrive in Mars' orbit in September 2014 approximately at the same time as India's [[Mangalyaan]] orbiter.


===2013 U.S. Federal government shutdown===
===2013 U.S. Federal government shutdown===

Revision as of 10:16, 6 November 2013

This article is about a Mars orbiter. For other uses, see Maven (disambiguation).

Template:Infobox Spacecraft Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) is a planned space probe designed to study the Martian atmosphere while orbiting Mars. One of the stated mission goals is to possibly determine what caused atmospheric Martian water to be lost to space over time.[1]

If successfully launched on the first day of the launch window, November 18, 2013, MAVEN will be inserted on September 22, 2014 into an elliptic orbit 6,200 km (3,900 mi) by 150 km (93 mi) above the planet's surface.[2] The principal investigator for the spacecraft is Bruce Jakosky of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

History

The mission was spawned by NASA's Mars Scout Program, which although discontinued in 2010, yielded Phoenix and MAVEN, as well as numerous missions studies.[3] Mars Scout missions target a cost of less than US$485 million, not including launch services, which cost approximately $187 million.[4]

On September 15, 2008 NASA announced that it had selected MAVEN to be the Mars Scout 2013 mission.[5][6] There was one other finalist and eight other proposals that were competing against MAVEN.

On August 2, 2013 MAVEN arrived at Kennedy Space Centre Florida to begin pre-launch preparations.[7] NASA has scheduled the launch of MAVEN from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on November 18, 2013, using an Atlas V 401 rocket.[8] The launch window is from 1:47 p.m. to 3:47 p.m. EST.[9] The probe should arrive in Mars' orbit in September 2014 approximately at the same time as India's Mangalyaan orbiter.

2013 U.S. Federal government shutdown

The United States federal government shutdown of 2013 initially threatened to force a 26-month postponement of the mission. With the spacecraft nominally scheduled to launch on November 18, a delay beyond December 7 would cause MAVEN to miss the launch window as Mars will move too far out of alignment with the Earth, effectively postponing the mission till the next launch window in 2016. Bruce Jakosky, who is directing the mission, said that a 2016 launch would be less useful scientifically because the timing would correspond with a low point in the solar cycle.[10] On October 3, Jakosky reported that NASA had deemed a 2013 MAVEN launch essential to ensuring future communication with current NASA assets on Mars—namely the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers—and that spacecraft processing had already been restarted in preparation for an on-time launch.[11][12]

Objectives

Features on Mars resembling dry riverbeds and the discovery of minerals that form in the presence of water indicate that Mars once had a thicker atmosphere and was warm enough for liquid water to flow on the surface. However, that thick atmosphere was somehow lost to space.[13] Scientists suspect that over millions of years, Mars lost 99% of its atmosphere as the planet’s core cooled and its magnetic field decayed, allowing the solar wind to sweep away most of the water and volatile compounds the atmosphere once contained.[14]

The goal of MAVEN is to determine the history of the loss of atmospheric gases to space, providing answers about Martian climate evolution. By measuring the rate with which the atmosphere is currently escaping to space and gathering enough information about the relevant processes, scientists will be able to infer how the planet's atmosphere evolved over time. MAVEN will have four primary scientific objectives:

  1. Determine the role that loss of volatiles to space from the Mars atmosphere has played through time.
  2. Determine the current state of the upper atmosphere, ionosphere, and interactions with the solar wind.
  3. Determine the current rates of escape of neutral gases and ions to space and the processes controlling them.
  4. Determine the ratios of stable isotopes in the Martian atmosphere.[15]

MAVEN is expected to reach Mars in 2014. By then, the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite on board the Curiosity rover will have made similar surface measurements from Gale crater, which will help guide the interpretation of MAVEN's upper atmosphere measurements.[1] MAVEN's measurements will also provide additional scientific context with which to test models for current methane formation in Mars.[16]

Hardware overview

MAVEN's design will be based on those of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey spacecraft. Lockheed Martin Space Systems is building and testing the spacecraft. The orbiter has a cubical shape of about 0.20 m3 (7.1 cu ft), with two solar arrays holding the magnetometers on both ends. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory will provide an "Electra" telecommunications relay package[17] which has a data transfer rate of up to 10Mbps,[18] but the highly elliptical orbit of the spacecraft will limit its usefulness as a relay for operating landers on the surface.

Scientific instruments

SWEA

MAVEN will study Mars' upper atmosphere and how it interacts with the Sun. It will carry instruments to measure characteristics of Mars' atmospheric gases, upper atmosphere and ionosphere, and the solar wind.[19][20] MAVEN will perform measurements from a highly elliptical orbit over a period of one Earth year, with five "deep dips" at 150 km (93 mi) minimum altitude to sample the upper atmosphere.[21] The University of Colorado Boulder, University of California, Berkeley and Goddard Space Flight Center will each build a suite of instruments to fly on the spacecraft. The MAVEN spacecraft will carry three instrument suites, and they include:[22]

Particles and Field (P&F) Package
Built by the University of California, Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory.
  • Solar Wind Electron Analyzer (SWEA) - measures solar wind and ionospheric electrons
  • Solar Wind Ion Analyzer (SWIA) - measures solar wind and magnetosheath ion density and velocity
  • SupraThermal And Thermal Ion Composition (STATIC) - measures thermal ions to moderate-energy escaping ions
  • Solar Energetic Particle (SEP) - determines the impact of SEPs on the upper atmosphere
  • Langmuir Probe and Waves (LPW) - determines ionospheric properties and wave heating of escaping ions and solar extreme ultraviolet (EUV) input to atmosphere
  • Magnetometer (MAG) - measures interplanetary solar wind and ionospheric magnetic fields[23]
Remote Sensing (RS) Package
Built by the University of Colorado Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics.
  • Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrometer (IUVS) - measures global characteristics of the upper atmosphere and ionosphere
Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer (NGIMS) Package
Built by Goddard Space Flight Center
  • Measures the composition and isotopes of neutral gases and ions

See also

References

  1. ^ a b New NASA Missions to Investigate How Mars Turned Hostile. By Bill Steigerwald (18 November 2012)
  2. ^ Maven's Haven: NASA's Next Mars Mission Preps for Launch
  3. ^ NASA's Scout Program Discontinued.
  4. ^ NASA Awards Launch Services Contract for Maven Mission (October 21, 2010)
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference selection was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "Thumbs Up Given for 2013 NASA Mars Orbiter". NASA - JPL. October 5, 2010. Retrieved 2010-10-05.
  7. ^ "NASA Begins Launch Preparations for Next Mars Mission". NASA. 2013-08-05. Retrieved 2013-08-06.
  8. ^ "NASA Awards Launch Services Contract for MAVEN Mission". SpaceRef. Retrieved 2010-10-21.
  9. ^ "MAVEN spacecraft to examine Mars atmosphere". CFN13. Retrieved 27 September 2013.
  10. ^ Elliott, Danielle (October 2, 2013). "Government shutdown could delay NASA's Mars MAVEN mission to 2017". CBS News. Retrieved October 3, 2013.
  11. ^ October 3 (September 20, 2013). "MAVEN » MAVEN reactivation status update". Lasp.colorado.edu. Retrieved October 4, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  12. ^ Richard, Kerr (4 October2013). "Shutdown Won". Science Magazine. Retrieved 2013-10-04. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ^ MAVEN Mission to Investigate How Sun Steals Martian Atmosphere By Bill Steigerwald (5 October 2010)
  14. ^ "NASA exec checks on Lockheed Martin's progress on Mars vehicles". Denver Business Journal. October 15, 2012. Retrieved 2012-10-16. {{cite news}}: |first= missing |last= (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  15. ^ MAVEN Fact Sheet
  16. ^ "Mars Methane Questions Answered". Science channel. Retrieved 2009-11-14.
  17. ^ "MAVEN: Answers About Mars Climate History". NASA. 2012. Retrieved 2012-10-25.
  18. ^ "The Electra Proximity Link Payload for Mars Relay Telecommunications and Navigation" (PDF). NASA. 2003-09-29. Retrieved 2013-01-11.
  19. ^ "Unique Instrument Devised to Solve Mars' Atmosphere Mystery". iDigital Times. 20 July 2012. Retrieved 2013-07-20. {{cite news}}: |first= missing |last= (help)
  20. ^ CU chosen for $485M Mars exploration project
  21. ^ Mission Timeline. University of Colorado, Boulder.
  22. ^ "MAVEN - Instruments". University of Colorado Boulder. 2012. Retrieved 2012-10-25.
  23. ^ NASA Goddard Delivers Magnetometers for NASA's Next Mission to Mars by Nancy Neal Jones (21 May 2012)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to MAVEN.
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