NASA - MAVEN - updates and discussion

[jacqmans]

RELEASE: 08-233

NASA SELECTS MISSION TO STUDY MARS ATMOSPHERE

WASHINGTON -- NASA has selected a Mars robotic mission that will
provide information about the Red Planet's atmosphere, climate
history and potential habitability in greater detail than ever
before.

Called the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft,
the $485 million mission is scheduled for launch in late 2013. The
selection was evaluated to have the best science value and lowest
implementation risk from 20 mission investigation proposals submitted
in response to a NASA Announcement of Opportunity in August 2006.

"This mission will provide the first direct measurements ever taken to
address key scientific questions about Mars' evolution," said Doug
McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA
Headquarters in Washington.

Mars once had a denser atmosphere that supported the presence of
liquid water on the surface. As part of a dramatic climate change,
most of the Martian atmosphere was lost. MAVEN will make definitive
scientific measurements of present-day atmospheric loss that will
offer clues about the planet's history.

"The loss of Mars' atmosphere has been an ongoing mystery," McCuistion
said. "MAVEN will help us solve it."

The principal investigator for the mission is Bruce Jakosky of the
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of
Colorado at Boulder. The university will receive $6 million to fund
mission planning and technology development during the next year.
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., will manage the
project. Lockheed Martin of Littleton, Colo., will build the
spacecraft based on designs from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
and 2001 Mars Odyssey missions. The team will begin mission design
and implementation in the fall of 2009.

Launched in August 2005, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is a
multipurpose spacecraft that carries the most powerful telescopic
camera ever flown to another planet. The camera can show Martian
landscape features as small as a kitchen table from low orbital
altitudes. The mission is examining potential landing sites for
future surface missions and providing a communications relay for
other Mars spacecraft.

The 2001 Mars Odyssey, launched in April of that year, is determining
the composition of the Red Planet's surface by searching for water
and shallow buried ice. The spacecraft also is studying the planet's
radiation environment.

After arriving at Mars in the fall of 2014, MAVEN will use its
propulsion system to enter an elliptical orbit ranging 90 to 3,870
miles above the planet. The spacecraft's eight science instruments
will take measurements during a full Earth year, which is roughly
equivalent to half of a Martian year. MAVEN also will dip to an
altitude 80 miles above the planet to sample Mars' entire upper
atmosphere. During and after its primary science mission, the
spacecraft may be used to provide communications relay support for
robotic missions on the Martian surface.

"MAVEN will obtain critical measurements that the National Academy of
Science listed as being of high priority in their 2003 decadal survey
on planetary exploration," said Michael Meyer, the Mars chief
scientist at NASA Headquarters. "This field of study also was
highlighted in the 2005 NASA Roadmap for New Science of the Sun-Earth
System Connection."

The Mars Scout Program is designed to send a series of small,
low-cost, principal investigator-led missions to the Red Planet. The
Phoenix Mars Lander was the first spacecraft selected. Phoenix landed
on the icy northern polar region of Mars on May 25, 2008. The
spacecraft completed its prime science mission on Aug. 25, 2008. The
mission has been extended through Sept. 30.

NASA's Mars Exploration Program seeks to characterize and understand
Mars as a dynamic system, including its present and past environment,
climate cycles, geology and biological potential.

For more information about NASA's exploration of Mars, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/mars

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

[eeergo]

There's also some less optimistic news:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080915/ap_on_sc/mars_mission

While some of what they say may be true, I doubt they will launch a probe to Mars and dump it the next year, as 'an official' is quoted to have said.

[faustod]

This mission could probably utilize one of the latest Delta 2 rockets, I think.

[lbiderman]

Dubtful, if the mission is successful in orbiting the spacecraft around Mars, they´ll probably fund it for a while. I can´t seriously believe money is THAT scarse. But, time will tell...

[Jim]

This mission could probably utilize one of the latest Delta 2 rockets, I think.

too big, it is an EELV class

[iamlucky13]

I wonder if any of that $10 million price increase is due to refined estimates made in those 9 months or the changing inflation and currency values. In those cases, the cost increases would have happened anyways.

The 2 year delay was due, or so I've read elsewhere, to the high cost of the MSL rover. Science Mission Directorate decided to skip a launch window to ensure that there were no added budget pressures on MSL, which frankly is a huge mission.

MAVEN will be in a fairly eccentric orbit in order to sample the upper atmosphere...will its mission length be fundamentally limited by fuel constraints?

[jacqmans]

LOCKHEED MARTIN SPACECRAFT TO BE FLOWN FOR NASA'S MAVEN MARS MISSION Mars Scout mission will study atmospheric processes

DENVER, September 18, 2008 -- Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] has been selected by NASA to design, build and operate the spacecraft for NASA's Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) program. NASA's newest mission will analyze the upper atmosphere and past climate change on Mars. The $485-million project is led by principal investigator Bruce Jakosky of the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP). NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center will manage the mission.

MAVEN is scheduled to launch in late 2013 and arrive at Mars in the fall of 2015. The spacecraft will circle Mars in an elliptical orbit as it studies current atmospheric losses with an emphasis on the role of the solar wind. These present-day losses will give insight to the massive climate change Mars experienced in the past.

"We know from three decades of studying Mars that its surface was dramatically transformed by water, but we don't know what happened to that water," said Jim Crocker, vice president of Sensing and Exploration Systems at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company. "The MAVEN mission will provide definitive answers about Mars' climate history and an understanding of what happened to the liquid water on the surface. Our team is excited to be a part of this fascinating study."

The spacecraft is based on the flight-proven designs of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft - both designed and built by Lockheed Martin. MRO was launched in August 2005 and Odyssey was launched in April 2001. Both spacecraft are still performing science operations as they orbit the planet. Lockheed Martin also conducts flight operations for both missions for NASA.

"Lockheed Martin brings with it a tremendous wealth of experience in planetary spacecraft, and in Mars spacecraft and operations," said Jakosky. "Their MAVEN team is absolutely first rate, and the mission concept we've put together reflects this. I could not imagine trying to do this mission without their involvement."

MAVEN is the second mission in NASA's Mars Scout Program - a series of small, low-cost, principal investigator-led missions to the Red Planet. The Phoenix Mars Lander was the first mission under the program. Lockheed Martin is the industry partner on the Phoenix mission. It designed and built the spacecraft, and also provided both flight operations and currently surface operations for the lander. The mission has been extended through Sept. 30, 2008.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, a major operating unit of Lockheed Martin Corporation, designs, develops, tests, manufactures and operates a full spectrum of advanced-technology systems for national security, civil and commercial customers. Chief products include human space flight systems; a full range of remote sensing, navigation, meteorological and communications satellites and instruments; space observatories and interplanetary spacecraft; laser radar; fleet ballistic missiles; and missile defense systems.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 140,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The corporation reported 2006 sales of $39.6 billion.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Gary Napier, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company; (303) 971-4012; [email protected]

NOTE TO EDITORS:

More information on the MAVEN mission including illustrations of the spacecraft is available at: http://lasp.colorado.edu/maven/

[jacqmans]

NASA's MAVEN Mission to Mars Passes Confirmation Review

5-Oct-2010 4:07 PM

Lockheed Martin-Built Spacecraft will be Next Orbiter at Mars


DENVER, Oct 05, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) project passed its Mission Confirmation Review on Oct. 4. As a result, NASA has given approval for the development and 2013 launch of the MAVEN mission. Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) is the industry partner for the mission and will design and build the spacecraft and perform flight operations.



This major milestone was the culmination of a process involving NASA executives and industry experts that thoroughly reviewed the mission, science and spacecraft plans to ensure MAVEN can be developed on schedule, within budget, with acceptable risk, and will result in a reliable spacecraft that will accomplish all of NASA's objectives for the project.



Images of the Martian surface indicate that there was once liquid water present, which would have required a warmer and thicker atmosphere sometime in the past. Carrying three science instrument suites, the MAVEN spacecraft will probe the upper atmosphere of Mars and its interactions with the sun to learn how the Martian atmosphere behaves in the context of solar activity. With this information, scientists will be able to recreate the history of Mars' atmosphere - what it was once like and what happened to it. The principal investigator for the MAVEN mission is Dr. Bruce Jakosky of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado (CU) at Boulder.



"The MAVEN spacecraft team is ready and eager to move forward with the detailed design of the spacecraft and ultimately to the successful launch and operations of this important mission," said Guy Beutelschies, MAVEN program manager at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company.



Launch of the MAVEN spacecraft is scheduled for November 2013, and arrival and orbit insertion around Mars is scheduled for September 2014. MAVEN is the second mission in the Mars Scout Program which is designed to send small, low-cost, principal investigator-led missions to the Red Planet. The Phoenix Mars Lander was the first Mars Scout mission and was also built and flown by Lockheed Martin for NASA.



Regarding passing the MAVEN Mission Confirmation Review, Dr. Jakosky said, "A better understanding of the upper atmosphere and the role that escape to space has played is required to plug a major hole in our understanding of Mars. We're really excited about having the opportunity to address these fundamental science questions."



"The team has successfully met every major milestone since selection two years ago," said MAVEN Project Manager David Mitchell of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "Looking forward, we are well positioned for the next push to critical design review in July 2011. In three short years, we'll be heading to Mars!"



NASA Goddard will manage the project and will also build some of the instruments for the mission. In addition to the principal investigator coming from CU-LASP, the university will provide science operations, build instruments, and lead education/public outreach. Lockheed Martin of Littleton, Colo., will build the spacecraft based on designs from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and 2001 Mars Odyssey missions and perform mission operations. The University of California-Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory will also build instruments for the mission. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., will provide navigation support, the Deep Space Network, and the Electra telecommunications relay hardware and operations.

[Space Pete]

CU-Boulder-Led Mars Mission Given Green Light by NASA to Proceed to Development.

NASA announced today that the University of Colorado at Boulder-led mission to Mars to investigate how the planet lost much of its atmosphere eons ago has been approved by the space agency to move into the development stage.

The effort, known as the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, or MAVEN, mission, will probe the past climate of Mars, including its potential for harboring life over the ages. CU-Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics is leading the mission, which will carry three instrument suites to probe the atmosphere of Mars and its interactions with the sun, said LASP Associate Director Bruce Jakosky, principal investigator on the mission.

"A better understanding of the upper atmosphere and the loss of volatile compounds like carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and water to space is required to plug a major hole in our understanding of Mars," said Jakosky, also a professor in the geological sciences department. "We're really excited about having the opportunity to address these fundamental science questions."

CU-Boulder's LASP team also will provide science operations, build two of the science instruments and lead education and public outreach efforts for the MAVEN mission.

Clues on the Martian surface, including features resembling dry riverbeds and minerals that only form in the presence of water, suggest Mars once had a denser atmosphere that supported the presence of liquid water on the surface. Since most of the atmosphere was lost as part of a dramatic climate change, MAVEN will make definitive scientific measurements of present-day atmospheric loss that will offer insight into the Red Planet's history.

Michael Luther, on behalf of Ed Weiler of the NASA Headquarters Science Mission Directorate, led a confirmation review panel that approved the detailed plan, instrument suite and budget for the mission.

"The team has successfully met every major milestone since selection two years ago," said MAVEN Project Manager David Mitchell of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "Looking forward, we are well positioned for the next push to critical design review in July 2011. In three short years we will be heading to Mars."

Launch is scheduled for November 2013.

The three instrument suites on MAVEN will include a remote-sensing package built by LASP that will determine global characteristics of the upper atmosphere. The MAVEN science team includes three LASP scientists heading up instrument teams -- Nick Schneider, Frank Eparvier and Robert Ergun -- as well as a large supporting team of scientists, engineers and missions operations specialists.

The MAVEN effort also will include participation by a number of CU-Boulder graduate and undergraduate students in the coming years, said Jakosky. Currently there are more than 100 students working on research projects at LASP, which provides training for future careers as engineers and scientists.

The confirmation review announced today authorized continuation of the project and set its cost and schedule. The next major mission milestone, the critical design review, will examine the detailed MAVEN system design. Assuming the critical design review is successful, the project team will assemble the spacecraft and its instruments.

The MAVEN contract is the largest ever awarded to CU-Boulder. NASA Goddard will manage the project, which will cost $438 million excluding the separately funded government-furnished launch vehicle and telecommunications relay package. Goddard also is building several science instruments for the mission.

Lockheed Martin of Littleton, Colo., will build the spacecraft based on designs from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and 2001 Mars Odyssey missions as well as perform mission operations. The University of California-Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory also will build instruments for the mission and support education and public outreach efforts.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., will provide navigation support, the Deep Space Network, and the Electra telecommunications relay hardware and operations.

Founded in 1948 at CU-Boulder, LASP is a comprehensive space institute, combining all aspects of space exploration through its expertise in science, engineering, mission operations and data analysis. Focusing on the study of Earth's atmosphere, the sun and the solar system, LASP is the world's only research institute to have sent instruments to all eight planets and to Pluto.

For more information about MAVEN visit http://science.nasa.gov/missions/maven.


www.colorado.edu/news/r/4449546f8c350ef0f1100d474322665d.html

[jacqmans]

CONTRACT RELEASE: C10-065

NASA AWARDS LAUNCH SERVICES CONTRACT FOR MAVEN MISSION

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA has selected United Launch Services, LLC
of Littleton, Colo., to launch the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile
Evolution spacecraft known as MAVEN. MAVEN will launch in November
2013 aboard an Atlas V 401 rocket from Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral
Air Force Station, Fla.

The total cost value for the MAVEN launch service is approximately
$187 million. This estimated cost includes the task ordered launch
service for the Atlas plus additional services under other contracts
for payload processing; launch vehicle integration; mission unique
launch site ground support; and tracking, data and telemetry
services.

MAVEN is a Mars orbiter that will greatly enhance our understanding of
Mars' climate history by providing a comprehensive picture of the
planet's upper atmosphere, ionosphere, solar energy drivers and
atmospheric losses.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages the
MAVEN project. MAVEN's principal investigator is based at the
University of Colorado at Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and
Space Physics. The Launch Services Program at NASA's Kennedy Space
Center in Florida is responsible for launch vehicle program
management of the Atlas V launch services. United Launch Alliance
provides the launch services for United Launch Services.

For more information about MAVEN, visit:



http://www.nasa.gov/maven


For more information about NASA and its missions, visit:



http://www.nasa.gov


-end-

[kevin-rf]

401? The new Delta II...

...Not to cause it to degenerate to a SpaceX vs. the world debate, but is the Falcon 9 capable of performing this mission?

[marsavian]

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1010/21maven/

The MAVEN agreement is the agency's first launch deal under the second NASA Launch Services contract announced in September. The new NLS contract covers launches of robotic NASA spacecraft for the next decade. MAVEN's launch contract was held up after the last NLS deal expired June 30, according to a senior NASA official. NLS contracts are multiple award indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity pacts with launch companies covering potential flight opportunities. NASA can order up to 70 missions in the new NLS contract for a maximum value of $15 billion.

[simonbp]

401? The new Delta II...

...Not to cause it to degenerate to a SpaceX vs. the world debate, but is the Falcon 9 capable of performing this mission?

The spacecraft was designed before the Falcon 9 design was nailed down, let alone before the first flight. On the other hand, plenty of data was available for Atlas 401 from MRO, so that was the most logical choice...

[jacqmans]

Lockheed Martin Completes Primary Structure of NASA'S MAVEN Spacecraft

Date(s): 26-Sep-2011 1:04 PM


Photograph Shows Structure of Next Mars Orbiter


DENVER, Sept. 26, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) has completed building the primary structure of NASA's MAVEN spacecraft at its Space Systems Company facility near Denver. The Mars Atmosphere And Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft is scheduled to launch in November 2013 and will be the first mission devoted to understanding the Martian upper atmosphere.

Photo: http://www.lockheedmartin.com/news/press_releases/2011/0926_ss_maven.html

In the photo taken on Sept. 8, technicians from Lockheed Martin are inspecting the MAVEN primary structure following its recent completion at the company's Composites Lab. The primary structure is cube shaped at 7.5 feet x 7.5 feet x 6.5 feet high (2.3 meters x 2.3 meters x 2 meters high). Built out of composite panels comprised of aluminum honeycomb sandwiched between graphite composite face sheets, the entire structure only weighs 275 pounds (125 kilograms). At the center of the structure is the 4.25 feet (1.3 meters) diameter core cylinder that encloses the hydrazine propellant tank and serves as the primary vertical load-bearing structure. The large tank will hold approximately 3,615 pounds (1640 kilograms) of fuel.

"It's always a significant milestone when the project moves from a paper design to real hardware and software," said Guy Beutelschies, MAVEN program manager at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company. "Seeing the core structure reinforces the fact that MAVEN is no longer just a set of ideas that scientists and engineers have come up with, it is starting to become a spacecraft."

In mid October, the structure will be moved to Lockheed Martin's Structures Test Lab and undergo static load testing, which simulates and tests the many dynamic loads the spacecraft will experience during launch.

Despite the primary structure's light weight, it's designed to support the entire spacecraft mass during the launch, which applies an equivalent axial force at the launch vehicle interface of approximately 61,000 pounds when including accelerations up to 6 Gs. After completion of the static tests, the structure will be moved into a clean room to start propulsion subsystem integration. The Assembly, Test and Launch Operations (ATLO) phase begins July 2012.

"There's still a lot of work to go before we have the complete spacecraft, but this is a major step in getting us to the launch pad in two years. All of the team's hard work now will pay off when we get to Mars and see the science results," said Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado (CU/LASP) at Boulder.

The goal of MAVEN is to determine the role that loss of atmospheric gas to space played in changing the Martian climate through time. MAVEN will determine how much of the Martian atmosphere has been lost over time by measuring the current rate of escape to space and gathering enough information about the relevant processes to allow extrapolation backward in time.

NASA Goddard manages the project and will also build some of the instruments for the mission. In addition to the principal investigator coming from CU-LASP, the university will provide science operations, build instruments, and lead education/public outreach. Lockheed Martin of Littleton, Colo., is building the spacecraft and will perform mission operations. The University of California-Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory is also building instruments for the mission. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., will provide navigation support, the Deep Space Network, and the Electra telecommunications relay hardware and operations.

More information about MAVEN is online at:

http://www.nasa.gov/maven

http://lasp.colorado.edu/home/maven/

[Chris Bergin]

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2013/02/nasas-maven-completes-assembly-mars/

[Danderman]

Why are the outer solar panels at a slight angle compared with the inner panels?

[Jim]

Why are the outer solar panels at a slight angle compared with the inner panels?

I bet it is related to aero braking.  Will ask around.

[dsmillman]

There are a series of excellent presentations on MAVEN at:

http://lasp.colorado.edu/home/maven/2012/12/10/maven-science-community-workshop/

[grakenverb]

Why are the outer solar panels at a slight angle compared with the inner panels?

"The solar arrays were enlarged
to allow a “gull-wing” design, to shift the center
of pressure (CP) relative to the center of gravity (CG) and provide aerostability under all circumstances"


http://lunar.colorado.edu/~jaburns/astr4800/files/MAVEN-ExSumm.pdf

[jacqmans]

MAVEN Acoustics Testing

NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft underwent acoustics testing on Feb. 13, 2013 at Lockheed Martin Space Systems’ Reverberant Acoustic Laboratory. The environmental test simulated the maximum sound and vibration levels the spacecraft will experience during launch. MAVEN is the next mission to Mars and will be the first mission devoted to understanding the Martian upper atmosphere.