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NASA - MAVEN - updates
by
jacqmans
on 15 Sep, 2008 21:00
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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
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#1
by
eeergo
on 16 Sep, 2008 12:20
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#2
by
faustod
on 16 Sep, 2008 12:38
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This mission could probably utilize one of the latest Delta 2 rockets, I think.
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#3
by
lbiderman
on 16 Sep, 2008 12:42
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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...
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#4
by
Jim
on 16 Sep, 2008 14:29
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This mission could probably utilize one of the latest Delta 2 rockets, I think.
too big, it is an EELV class
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#5
by
iamlucky13
on 16 Sep, 2008 22:35
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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?
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#6
by
jacqmans
on 18 Sep, 2008 21:46
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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/
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#7
by
jacqmans
on 05 Oct, 2010 21:22
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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.
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#8
by
Space Pete
on 05 Oct, 2010 22:41
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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
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#9
by
jacqmans
on 21 Oct, 2010 20:47
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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-
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#10
by
kevin-rf
on 22 Oct, 2010 12:28
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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?
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#11
by
marsavian
on 22 Oct, 2010 20:20
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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.
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#12
by
simonbp
on 24 Oct, 2010 07:26
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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...
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#13
by
jacqmans
on 26 Sep, 2011 17:16
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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.htmlIn 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/mavenhttp://lasp.colorado.edu/home/maven/
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#14
by
Chris Bergin
on 08 Feb, 2013 19:09
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#15
by
Danderman
on 08 Feb, 2013 19:23
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Why are the outer solar panels at a slight angle compared with the inner panels?
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#16
by
Jim
on 08 Feb, 2013 19:28
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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.
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#17
by
dsmillman
on 08 Feb, 2013 20:59
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#18
by
grakenverb
on 08 Feb, 2013 21:58
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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
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#19
by
jacqmans
on 20 Mar, 2013 14:30
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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.
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#20
by
catdlr
on 01 May, 2013 21:36
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May 01, 2013
RELEASE : 13-125
NASA Invites Public to Send Names And Messages to Mars WASHINGTON -- NASA is inviting members of the public to submit their names and a personal message online for a DVD to be carried aboard a spacecraft that will study the Martian upper atmosphere.
The DVD will be in NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft, which is scheduled for launch in November. The DVD is part of the mission's Going to Mars Campaign coordinated at the University of Colorado at Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (CU/LASP).
The DVD will carry every name submitted. The public also is encouraged to submit a message in the form of a three-line poem, or haiku. However, only three haikus will be selected. The deadline for all submissions is July 1. An online public vote to determine the top three messages to be placed on the DVD will begin July 15.
"The Going to Mars campaign offers people worldwide a way to make a personal connection to space, space exploration, and science in general, and share in our excitement about the MAVEN mission," said Stephanie Renfrow, lead for the MAVEN Education and Public Outreach program at CU/LASP.
Participants who submit their names to the Going to Mars campaign will be able to print a certificate of appreciation to document their involvement with the MAVEN mission.
"This new campaign is a great opportunity to reach the next generation of explorers and excite them about science, technology, engineering and math," said Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator from CU/LASP. "I look forward to sharing our science with the worldwide community as MAVEN begins to piece together what happened to the Red Planet's atmosphere."
MAVEN is the first spacecraft devoted to exploring and understanding the Martian upper atmosphere. The spacecraft will investigate how the loss of Mars' atmosphere to space determined the history of water on the surface.
"This mission will continue NASA's rich history of inspiring and engaging the public in spaceflight in ongoing Mars exploration," said David Mitchell, MAVEN project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
MAVEN's principal investigator is based at the University of Colorado at Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. The university will provide science operations, science instruments and lead Education and Public Outreach. Goddard manages the project and provides two of the science instruments for the mission. Lockheed Martin of Littleton, Colo., built the spacecraft and is responsible for mission operations. The University of California at Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory provides science instruments for the mission. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., provides navigation support, the Deep Space Network and the Electra telecommunications relay hardware and operations.
To participate in the Going to Mars campaign, visit
http://lasp.colorado.edu/maven/goingtomarsFor more information on MAVEN, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/maven - end -
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#21
by
TheFallen
on 08 May, 2013 01:44
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Already submitted my name...plus two additional (three's the limit)
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#22
by
catdlr
on 11 Sep, 2013 18:05
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MAVEN ATLO time-lapse
Published on Sep 11, 2013
The MAVEN spacecraft is shown in this time-lapse video during its Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations (ATLO) phase. MAVEN began ATLO procedures on Sept. 11, 2012 and was shipped to Kennedy Space Center's Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility on Aug. 2, 2013 to begin preparations for its scheduled launch on Nov. 18, 2013.
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#23
by
TheFallen
on 03 Oct, 2013 22:13
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#24
by
psloss
on 03 Oct, 2013 22:49
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#25
by
jacqmans
on 29 Oct, 2013 08:24
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#26
by
Targeteer
on 05 Dec, 2013 19:55
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From Facebook--I also saw that the first trajectory correction burn occurred successfully.
Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN Mission
MAVEN IUVS checkout successfully completed
Mission operators have successfully completed initial on-orbit power on and checkout of the MAVEN Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph (IUVS) and Remote Sensing Package.
All instrument sub-systems have been tested and are performing as expected. As part of this check out, the IUVS has taken two sets of images at various high voltage settings to get a baseline of on-orbit performance at the current instrument temperatures. IUVS took initial measurements of interplanetary hydrogen.
Plans are in place to turn on the IUVS again next week to look at what is left of Comet C/2012 S1 - ISON and then again a few more times during cruise before we get to Mars in September, 2014.
The MAVEN IUVS will measure global characteristics of the Martian upper atmosphere and ionosphere via remote sensing.
In this image, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) mechanical engineers pose with the MAVEN Remote Sensing Package shortly before it was delivered to Lockheed Martin in Littleton, Colorado for integration onto the spacecraft.
To learn more about the IUVS and how it will collect data at Mars, please visit:
http://bit.ly/11UnSGX(Image credit: LASP/Aref Nammari)
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#27
by
Targeteer
on 10 Jan, 2014 04:21
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From Facebook
MAVEN Status Update: Jan. 9, 2014
As of January 9, 2014, MAVEN is at a distance of 14,386,805 km (8,939,546 miles) from Earth and the spacecraft continues to operate nominally in early cruise phase. MAVEN currently has an Earth-centered velocity of 2.43 km/s (1.53 miles/s or 5,508 mph) and a Sun-centered velocity of 32.58 km/s (20.27 miles/s or 72,972 mph).
MAVEN has already traveled 145,978,745 km (90,706,813 miles) on its heliocentric transfer path to Mars. We are currently at a distance of 178,442,517 km (110,879,039 miles) from Mars and one-way light-time to the spacecraft is 48 seconds. MAVEN will travel a total of 712,188,796 km (442,532,752 miles) and approximately 229 degrees around the Sun during its 10-month journey.
MAVEN remains on schedule for Mars Orbit Insertion on September 22, 2014.
View this update and more on the MAVEN web site at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, here:
http://bit.ly/1hAbogI
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#28
by
Targeteer
on 25 Jan, 2014 02:35
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From Facebook
MAVEN Status Update: January 24, 2014
The MAVEN Particles & Fields Package (PFP) team has successfully completed instrument initial post-launch power on and checkout. The PFP consists of six separate and distinct instruments, all operated through a single data processing unit. This flight hardware was built by providers at UC Berkeley, the University of Colorado Boulder, NASA Goddard, and the Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology (IRAP) in Toulouse, France. The entire package was integrated and delivered by the University of California at Berkeley. All instruments have been tested and are performing as expected.
The six instruments that comprise the PFP make detailed measurements of the properties of the Martian upper atmosphere, ionosphere, the input of solar energy into the upper atmosphere, the magnetic field, and ions that have enough energy to escape from the atmosphere to space. These measurements are central to understanding the loss of atmospheric gas to space that is occurring today and to determining what the history of loss through time has been.
As of January 22nd, 448 uplinks have been sent to the spacecraft since launch. MAVEN is 16.8 million kilometers (10.4 million miles) from Earth and 156.7 million kilometers (97.4 million miles) from Mars. Our second Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM-2) will occur on February 26th and will fine tune our approach path to Mars. The team also plans to activate the Electra telecommunications relay package in February.
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#29
by
Chris Bergin
on 04 Feb, 2014 23:49
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#30
by
Chris Bergin
on 04 Feb, 2014 23:50
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#31
by
Blackstar
on 04 Mar, 2014 03:39
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#32
by
catdlr
on 05 Mar, 2014 23:23
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NASA | Studying the Solar Wind on Mars
Published on Mar 5, 2014
Robert Lin, the late director of the Space Sciences Laboratory, discusses how NASA's MAVEN spacecraft will study the interaction of the Martian atmosphere with the solar wind. MAVEN's findings will reveal how Mars lost its early atmosphere, turning it from a warm, wet planet into the cold, dry one that we see today.
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#33
by
catdlr
on 06 Mar, 2014 19:53
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MAVEN | Mars Atmospheric Loss: Sputtering
Published on Mar 6, 2014
When you take a look at Mars, you probably wouldn't think that it looks like a nice place to live. It's dry, it's dusty, and there's practically no atmosphere. But some scientists think that Mars may have once looked like a much nicer place to live, with a thicker atmosphere, cloudy skies, and possibly even liquid water flowing over the surface.
NASA's MAVEN spacecraft will give us a clearer idea of how Mars lost its atmosphere, and scientists think that several processes have had an impact.
One way a planet can lose its atmosphere is through a process called "sputtering." In this process, atoms are knocked away from the atmosphere due to impacts from energetic particles.
(Video credit: NASA/GSFC)
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#34
by
clongton
on 20 Aug, 2014 15:54
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MAVEN is scheduled to arrive next month I believe.
Are there any updates?
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#35
by
dsmillman
on 20 Aug, 2014 16:36
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#36
by
Sesquipedalian
on 20 Aug, 2014 20:17
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There is some useful information
here on the plans for MAVEN juggling orbit insertion, initial checkout, and Siding Spring observation ops. Some excerpts:
Sep 22 02:00: (approx.) MAVEN orbit insertion. MAVEN observations of the comet will only occur if orbit insertion goes off without a hitch. Although they will not be in their science mission yet, MAVEN has already acquired experience in attempting comet observations: they tried to study ISON. They didn't succeed in detecting it, but it gave them valuable practice for the Siding Spring campaign.
MAVEN had been considering delaying their transition from initial orbit into science orbit because that would have allowed them to hide behind Mars longer. MAVEN has decided to stick with their initial plan.
More at the link, including info on how the other spacecraft at Mars will handle the encounter.
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#37
by
Targeteer
on 28 Aug, 2014 17:11
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From Facebook
MAVEN Status Update: Thursday, August 28, 2014
At 8 pm EDT today, MAVEN will be at a distance of 197,671,189 km (122,827,182 miles) from Earth with an Earth-centered velocity of 27.0 km/s (16.8 mi/s or 60,448 mph) and a Sun-centered velocity of 22.2 km/s (13.8 mi/s or 49,709 mph). We are now just 24 days from Mars orbit insertion on September 21st.
Having traveled a total of 662,687,517 km (411,774,933 mi) in its heliocentric transfer orbit, the MAVEN spacecraft has now covered ~93% of its total journey from Earth to #Mars.
The spacecraft is currently at a distance of 6,594,130 km (4,097,402 mi) from Mars, and 215,991,349 km (134,210,802 mi) from the Sun. One-way light time to the #MAVEN spacecraft from Earth is 10 minutes and 59 seconds.
All navigation solutions continue to produce trajectory arrival predictions that ensure a successful transition to MAVEN's required science orbit.
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#38
by
Targeteer
on 04 Sep, 2014 17:57
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Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN Mission
25 mins ·
MAVEN Status Update: Thursday, September 4, 2014
At 8 pm EDT today, MAVEN will be at a distance of 205,304,736 km (127,570,449 miles) from Earth with an Earth-centered velocity of 27.95 km/s (17.37 mi/s or 62,532 mph) and a Sun-centered velocity of 22.29 km/s (13.58 mi/s or 48,892 mph). We are now just 17 days from Mars orbit insertion on September 21st.
Having traveled a total of 678,070,879 km (421,332,902 mi) in its heliocentric transfer orbit, the MAVEN spacecraft has now covered ~95% of its total journey from Earth to #Mars.
The spacecraft is currently at a distance of 4,705,429 km (2,923,818 mi) from Mars, and 215,446,454 km (133,872,220 mi) from the Sun. One-way light time to the #MAVEN spacecraft from Earth is 11 minutes and 24 seconds.
All navigation solutions continue to produce trajectory arrival predictions that ensure a successful transition to MAVEN's required science orbit.
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#39
by
Galactic Penguin SST
on 08 Sep, 2014 11:10
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#40
by
catdlr
on 10 Sep, 2014 22:52
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MAVEN's Journey to Mars
Published on Sep 10, 2014
MAVEN has been under development since 2003, including concept development, formulation, and formal development for flight. The original proposal was submitted to NASA in 2006 and MAVEN was selected to move forward with production in 2008.
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#41
by
Targeteer
on 11 Sep, 2014 19:15
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MAVEN Status Update: Thursday, September 11, 2014
At 8 pm EDT today, MAVEN will be at a distance of 212,637,115 km (132,126,577 miles) from Earth with an Earth-centered velocity of 28.89 km/s (17.95 mi/s or 64,620 mph) and a Sun-centered velocity of 22.39 km/s (13.91 mi/s or 50,076 mph).
We are now just 10 days from Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI) on September 21st!
Having traveled a total of 691,583,730 km (429,730,207 mi) in its heliocentric transfer orbit, the MAVEN spacecraft has now covered ~97% of its total journey from Earth to #Mars.
The spacecraft is currently at a distance of 2,794,368 km (1,736,339 mi) from Mars, and 214,697,543 km (133,406,868 mi) from the Sun. One-way light time to the #MAVEN spacecraft from Earth is 11 minutes and 49 seconds.
The spacecraft Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM-4), scheduled for Friday, September 12th was determined to be unnecessary and was therefore cancelled. All navigation solutions continue to produce trajectory arrival predictions that ensure a successful transition to MAVEN's required science orbit.
(Image credit: Tom Mason/CU-LASP)
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#42
by
jacqmans
on 13 Sep, 2014 10:08
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September 12, 2014
NASA to hold Sept. 17 Briefing on MAVEN Mars Orbit Insertion, Events Coverage
NASA will host a televised media briefing at 1 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, Sept. 17, to outline activities around the Sunday, Sept. 21 orbital insertion at Mars of the agency’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft. The briefing will be held in NASA’s Headquarters’ auditorium, 300 E Street SW in Washington, and broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency’s website.
MAVEN is the first spacecraft dedicated to exploring the upper atmosphere of Mars. The mission’s goal is to determine how the loss of atmospheric gas to space played a role in changing the Martian climate through time.
Panelists include:
-- Lisa May, lead program executive, Mars Exploration Program, NASA Headquarters, Washington
--Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder
--David Mitchell, MAVEN project manager, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
-- Guy Beutelschies, Lockheed Martin MAVEN program manager, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, Littleton, Colorado
Media can ask questions from participating NASA locations, or by telephone. To participate by phone, reporters must contact Dwayne Brown at 202-358-1726 or
[email protected] and provide their media affiliation by noon Wednesday. The public also may ask questions on social media using the hashtag #askNASA.
NASA Television Orbit Insertion Coverage
NASA Television coverage of the MAVEN orbit insertion begins at 9:30 p.m. EDT and concludes at 10:45 p.m. on Sept. 21. The orbital insertion is targeted to begin at 9:37 p.m. The program will be carried on NTV-1 (Public) and NTV-2 (Education). A clean feed for media will be carried on NTV-3 (Media Channel). The media feed will contain views of the MAVEN Mission Support Area only, without graphics or interviews.
A post-orbit insertion news conference is targeted for about two hours after orbital insertion.
For NASA Television downlink information, scheduling information and streaming video, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/nasatvMedia Accreditation
Media are invited to attend the orbit insertion event Sept 21 at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Littleton, Colorado. Attending media must be U.S. citizens and bring government-issued photo identification. For accreditation, contact Gary Napier, 303-971-4012,
[email protected] by 5 p.m. MDT Thursday, Sept. 18.
Social Media
Members of the public are invited to follow the day-long NASA Social event on Sept. 21 by following the hashtags #MAVEN and #JourneytoMars on social media channels such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and others. Twitter postings throughout the day will come from official accounts @NASA, @MAVEN2Mars and @NASASocial.
MAVEN's principal investigator is based at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at University of Colorado, Boulder. The university provided two science instruments and leads science operations and education and public outreach for the mission.
Goddard manages the project and provided two of the science instruments for the mission. Lockheed Martin built the spacecraft and is responsible for mission operations. The University of California at Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory provided four science instruments for the mission. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California provides navigation support, Deep Space Network support, and Electra telecommunications relay hardware and operations.
For more about the MAVEN mission, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/maven
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#43
by
Targeteer
on 15 Sep, 2014 21:13
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Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN Mission
MAVEN Status Update: Sept. 15, 2014
from David F. Mitchell, MAVEN Project Manager at NASA Goddard:
Everything continues to go well with MAVEN as it is readied for arrival at Mars on Sunday, September 21st. All spacecraft systems are operating nominally. We had scheduled a final Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM-4) for September 12th. However, the maneuver was cancelled because the flight path did not warrant a correction. MAVEN is right on track.
In the next few days the Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI) sequence will commence on the spacecraft. Most commands will be performed autonomously (without the need for commanding from Earth). However, there are two ground command opportunities still available to alter the spacecraft’s flight path, if necessary, in order to raise altitude for its first pass at Mars. These altitude raise decisions will be made by the Project at approximately 24 hours and 6 hours prior to MOI, in close coordination with the Navigation team and the Navigation Advisory Group. Right now we don’t expect to need an additional maneuver because of how well the spacecraft is flying.
On Sunday evening, MAVEN will slew (turn) to point the main engines in the direction of travel and fire for about 33 minutes in order to slow down the spacecraft enough to “capture” into Mars orbit. Although we have direct line of sight of MAVEN during the entire burn sequence, the observed data back on Earth will actually be viewed 12 minutes after the events occur because of the distance between Earth and Mars.
For more details, check out this MAVEN MOI video, “Targeting Mars:”
As we approach the last few days before arriving at Mars, the following are public affairs events that you may be interested in tuning in for:
- Pre-MOI Press Conference at NASA Headquarters: September 17th at 1:00 p.m. EDT.
- Live Television Coverage of the MOI Event: September 21st from 9:30 p.m. to 10:45 p.m. EDT.
- Post-MOI Press Conference at Lockheed Martin-Denver: September 21st, approximately 2 hours after MOI.
All of these events can be watched through NASA TV on your cable/satellite system or online at
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.
As of September 15th, the MAVEN spacecraft is 216 million kilometers (134 million miles) from Earth and 2 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Mars. From that distance, Mars as seen by MAVEN is the same size as a baseball as seen from 73 feet. Its velocity is 22.43 kilometers per second (50,174 miles per hour) as it moves around the Sun.
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#44
by
John44
on 17 Sep, 2014 18:11
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#45
by
catdlr
on 17 Sep, 2014 19:46
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NASA | Investigating the Martian Atmosphere
Published on Sep 17, 2014
NASA Goddard
The Martian surface bears ample evidence of flowing water in its youth, from crater lakes and riverbeds to minerals that only form in water. But today Mars is cold and dry, and scientists think that the loss of Mars' water may have been caused by the loss of its early atmosphere. NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volaile EvolutioN mission, or MAVEN, will be the first spacecraft devoted to studying the Red Planet's atmosphere, in an effort to understand how the Martian climate has changed over time.
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#46
by
catdlr
on 18 Sep, 2014 00:12
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NASA Mars Spacecraft Ready for Sept. 21 Orbit InsertionSeptember 17, 2014
NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft is nearing its scheduled Sept. 21 insertion into Martian orbit after completing a 10-month interplanetary journey of 442 million miles (711 million kilometers).
Flight Controllers at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Littleton, Colorado, will be responsible for the health and safety of the spacecraft throughout the process. The spacecraft's mission timeline will place the spacecraft in orbit at approximately 6:50 p.m. PDT (9:50 p.m. EDT).
"So far, so good with the performance of the spacecraft and payloads on the cruise to Mars," said David Mitchell, MAVEN project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "The team, the flight system, and all ground assets are ready for Mars orbit insertion."
The orbit-insertion maneuver will begin with the brief firing of six small thruster engines to steady the spacecraft. The engines will ignite and burn for 33 minutes to slow the craft, allowing it to be pulled into an elliptical orbit with a period of 35 hours.
Following orbit insertion, MAVEN will begin a six-week commissioning phase that includes maneuvering the spacecraft into its final orbit and testing its instruments and science-mapping commands. Thereafter, MAVEN will begin its one-Earth-year primary mission to take measurements of the composition, structure and escape of gases in Mars' upper atmosphere and its interaction with the sun and solar wind.
"The MAVEN science mission focuses on answering questions about where did the water that was present on early Mars go, about where did the carbon dioxide go," said Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator from the University of Colorado, Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. "These are important questions for understanding the history of Mars, its climate, and its potential to support at least microbial life."
MAVEN launched Nov. 18, 2013, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying three instrument packages. It is the first spacecraft dedicated to exploring the upper atmosphere of Mars. The mission's combination of detailed measurements at specific points in Mars' atmosphere and global imaging provides a powerful tool for understanding the properties of the Red Planet's upper atmosphere.
"MAVEN is another NASA robotic scientific explorer that is paving the way for our journey to Mars," said Jim Green, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "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."
The spacecraft's principal investigator is based at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at University of Colorado, Boulder. The university provided two science instruments and leads science operations, as well as education and public outreach, for the mission.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the project and also provided two science instruments for the mission. Lockheed Martin built the spacecraft and is responsible for mission operations. The Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley provided four science instruments for MAVEN. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, provides navigation and Deep Space Network support, and Electra telecommunications relay hardware and operations. JPL manages the Mars Exploration Program for NASA.
To learn more about the MAVEN mission, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/maven and
http://mars.nasa.gov/maven/Photo Credit JPL: NASA's MAVEN spacecraft NASA's MAVEN spacecraft is quickly approaching Mars on a mission to study its upper atmosphere. When it arrives on September 21, 2014, MAVEN's winding journey from Earth will culminate with a dramatic engine burn, pulling the spacecraft into an elliptical orbit.
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#47
by
Blackstar
on 19 Sep, 2014 20:45
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Here are the timelines for MAVEN and MOM Mars insertion. I'm a little thrown off by the times listed. I'll have to convert to my own (eastern) time zone.
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#48
by
Chris Bergin
on 21 Sep, 2014 15:38
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So I think we'll have a new specific thread for insertion, given NASA TV is going to do some coverage. We'll keep this thread active for general updates.
Linkage shortly.
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#49
by
Kryten
on 21 Sep, 2014 17:29
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Here are the timelines for MAVEN and MOM Mars insertion. I'm a little thrown off by the times listed. I'll have to convert to my own (eastern) time zone.
The PDT times weren't converted correctly; it's UTC-7, but all of the ones in that table are UTC-6.
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#50
by
deadshot462
on 22 Sep, 2014 01:29
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#51
by
Jamie Young
on 22 Sep, 2014 02:32
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#52
by
Star One
on 22 Sep, 2014 10:52
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#53
by
catdlr
on 11 Oct, 2014 01:34
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NASA Shares Early Results From MAVEN Mars OrbiterNASA will host a news teleconference at 11 a.m. PDT (2 p.m. EDT) Tuesday, Oct. 14, to announce early science results from its Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission.
Launched in November 2013, the spacecraft entered orbit around Mars on Sept. 21, completing an interplanetary journey of 10 months and 442 million miles (711 million kilometers). MAVEN is the first spacecraft devoted to exploring and understanding the Martian upper atmosphere to help scientists understand climate change over the Red Planet's history.
The teleconference participants are:
-- Elsayed Talaat, MAVEN program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington
-- Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder (CU-Boulder)
-- Mike Chaffin, Remote Sensing Team member at CU-Boulder
-- Justin Deighan, Remote Sensing Team member at CU-Boulder
-- Davin Larson, Solar Energetic Particles instrument lead at the University of California, Berkeley
For dial-in information, media should email their name, affiliation and telephone number to Dwayne Brown at
[email protected].
Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live at:
http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudioVisuals will be posted at the start of the event at:
http://www.nasa.gov/mavensource:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4333
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#54
by
Star One
on 21 Nov, 2014 17:25
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Here’s NASA’s Nov. 20 statement:
MAVEN went into safehold mode on Wednesday, Nov. 19. The spacecraft goes into this state autonomously, when it detects a problem with its operations, to ensure that it stays safe and in contact with Earth. Safehold was triggered by a timing conflict between commands. This is part of learning how to operate the spacecraft in a new environment, as this is the first time the spacecraft has been in its full science-operations scenario. The instruments have all been turned off and are safe, the spacecraft is healthy and in high-data-rate contact with Earth. The spacecraft operations team is currently developing the schedule to return MAVEN to science operations.
http://www.spacenews.com/article/civil-space/42612glitch-sends-latest-nasa-mars-orbiter-into-safe-mode
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#55
by
jacqmans
on 18 Mar, 2015 15:58
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March 18, 2015
NASA Spacecraft Detects Aurora and Mysterious Dust Cloud around Mars
NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft has observed two unexpected phenomena in the Martian atmosphere: an unexplained high-altitude dust cloud and aurora that reaches deep into the Martian atmosphere.
The presence of the dust at orbital altitudes from about 93 miles (150 kilometers) to 190 miles (300 kilometers) above the surface was not predicted. Although the source and composition of the dust are unknown, there is no hazard to MAVEN and other spacecraft orbiting Mars.
"If the dust originates from the atmosphere, this suggests we are missing some fundamental process in the Martian atmosphere," said Laila Andersson of the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospherics and Space Physics (CU LASP), Boulder, Colorado.
The cloud was detected by the spacecraft’s Langmuir Probe and Waves (LPW) instrument, and has been present the whole time MAVEN has been in operation. It is unknown if the cloud is a temporary phenomenon or something long lasting. The cloud density is greatest at lower altitudes. However, even in the densest areas it is still very thin. So far, no indication of its presence has been seen in observations from any of the other MAVEN instruments.
Possible sources for the observed dust include dust wafted up from the atmosphere; dust coming from Phobos and Deimos, the two moons of Mars; dust moving in the solar wind away from the sun; or debris orbiting the sun from comets. However, no known process on Mars can explain the appearance of dust in the observed locations from any of these sources.
MAVEN's Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph (IUVS) observed what scientists have named "Christmas lights." For five days just before Dec. 25, MAVEN saw a bright ultraviolet auroral glow spanning Mars' northern hemisphere. Aurora, known on Earth as northern or southern lights, are caused by energetic particles like electrons crashing down into the atmosphere and causing the gas to glow.
"What's especially surprising about the aurora we saw is how deep in the atmosphere it occurs - much deeper than at Earth or elsewhere on Mars,” said Arnaud Stiepen, IUVS team member at the University of Colorado. “The electrons producing it must be really energetic."
The source of the energetic particles appears to be the sun. MAVEN's Solar Energetic Particle instrument detected a huge surge in energetic electrons at the onset of the aurora. Billions of years ago, Mars lost a global protective magnetic field like Earth has, so solar particles can directly strike the atmosphere. The electrons producing the aurora have about 100 times more energy than you get from a spark of house current, so they can penetrate deeply in the atmosphere.
The findings are being presented at the 46th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlands, Texas.
MAVEN was launched to Mars on Nov. 18, 2013, to help solve the mystery of how the Red Planet lost most of its atmosphere and much of its water. The spacecraft arrived at Mars on Sept. 21, and is four months into its one-Earth-year primary mission.
"The MAVEN science instruments all are performing nominally, and the data coming out of the mission are excellent," said Bruce Jakosky of CU LASP, Principal Investigator for the mission.
MAVEN is part of the agency's Mars Exploration Program, which includes the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers, the Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft currently orbiting the planet.
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. In parallel, NASA is developing the human spaceflight capabilities needed for its journey to Mars or a future round-trip mission to the Red Planet in the 2030’s.
MAVEN's principal investigator is based at the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the MAVEN project. Partner institutions include Lockheed Martin, the University of California at Berkeley, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
For images related to the findings, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/maven
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#56
by
catdlr
on 24 Jun, 2015 20:39
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Bruce Jakosky—MAVEN Early Results
Published on Jun 24, 2015
In this presentation from June 20, 2015, Dr. Bruce Jakosky, principal investigator for the NASA MAVEN mission to Mars and Professor of Geological Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder, opened the second day of the 2015 MAVEN New Media Professional Development Workshop with a presentation and discussion about some of the early results from the first mission devoted entirely to investigating Mars' upper atmosphere.
(Video credit: Tom Mason/University of Colorado - LASP)
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#57
by
Blackstar
on 25 Jun, 2015 14:41
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MAVEN just got a mission extension:
NASA's MAVEN Mars orbiter has won a mission extension. The project announced on its Twitter account Monday that its mission has been extended from November of this year through September 2016. MAVEN has been in orbit around Mars since last September and performing well, so the extension was not unexpected. [Twitter @MAVEN2Mars ]
https://twitter.com/MAVEN2Mars/status/613048799485825024
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#58
by
catdlr
on 25 Jun, 2015 18:43
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David L. Mitchell—MAVEN Particles and Fields Data
Published on Jun 25, 2015
In this presentation from June 20, 2015, Dr. David L. Mitchell, assistant research physicist at UC-Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory and instrument lead for the MAVEN Solar Wind Electron Analyzer, wrapped up the second day of the 2015 MAVEN New Media Professional Development Workshop. The presentation and discussion covered some of the early results from the mission's Particles and Fields Package, which was designed to characterize the solar wind and the ionosphere of the red planet.
(Video credit: Tom Mason/University of Colorado - LASP)
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#59
by
catdlr
on 26 Jun, 2015 20:50
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Dave Brain—MAVEN Measurements of Drivers, Response, and Escape
Published on Jun 26, 2015
In this presentation from June 20, 2015, Dr. David Brain, assistant professor of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder and MAVEN science team co-investigator, focuses on atmospheric escape processes at Mars during the second day of the 2015 MAVEN New Media Professional Development Workshop.
The presentation and related discussion covered some of the early results from the nine instruments onboard the MAVEN spacecraft and the model predictions of what the early data indicate about Mars' atmospheric and climate evolution.
(Video credit: Tom Mason/University of Colorado - LASP)
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#60
by
catdlr
on 02 Sep, 2015 19:45
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NASA | Mapping Mars' Upper Atmosphere
Published on Sep 2, 2015
High above the thin Martian skies, NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft is carrying out a mission: determine how Mars lost its early atmosphere, and with it, its water. While previous Mars orbiters have peered down at the planet’s surface, MAVEN is spending part of its time gazing at the stars, looking for subtle changes in their color as they dip through the limb of Mars and set below the horizon. Such stellar occultations reveal what Mars’ atmosphere is made of, and how its composition varies with altitude. MAVEN’s observations are providing scientists with the most detailed picture of the Mars upper atmosphere to date, helping them understand how a once-hospitable world changed into the forbidding desert that we see today.
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#61
by
zubenelgenubi
on 03 Nov, 2015 22:37
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Nov. 2, 2015
M15-158
NASA to Announce New Findings on Fate of Mars’ Atmosphere(Science and Geophysical Research Letters embargoed details until 2 p.m. EST Nov. 5)NASA will provide details of key science findings from the agency’s ongoing exploration of Mars during a news briefing at 2 p.m. EST on Thursday, Nov. 5 in the James Webb Auditorium at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
The event will be broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency's website.
The news conference participants will be:
•Michael Meyer, lead scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters
•Bruce Jakosky, Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution
(MAVEN) principal investigator at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado, Boulder
•Jasper Halekas, MAVEN Solar Wind Ion Analyzer instrument lead at the University of Iowa, Iowa City
•Yaxue Dong, MAVEN science team member at LASP
•Dave Brain, MAVEN co-investigator at LASP
A brief question-and-answer session will take place during the event with media on site and by phone. Members of the public also can ask questions during the briefing on social media using #AskNASA.
To participate in the briefing by phone, media must email their name, media affiliation and phone number to Laurie Cantillo at
[email protected] by noon EST on Thursday.
For NASA TV downlink information and schedules, and to view the news briefing, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/nasatvFor more information about NASA's journey to Mars:
https://www.nasa.gov/journeytomars-end-
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#62
by
catdlr
on 05 Nov, 2015 20:07
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#63
by
catdlr
on 05 Nov, 2015 20:11
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MAVEN Mission Briefing: Solar Wind Strips Martian Atmosphere
Published on Nov 5, 2015
Highlights from a Nov, 5, 2015, NASA briefing on the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission's findings on the Martian atmosphere. MAVEN has identified the process that appears to have played a key role in the transition of the Martian climate from an early, warm and wet environment that might have supported surface life to the cold, arid planet Mars is today.
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#64
by
catdlr
on 05 Nov, 2015 20:12
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Measuring Mars' Atmospheric Loss
Published on Nov 5, 2015
A Nov. 5 NASA science update highlighted data from NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission that has determined the present rate at which Mars' atmosphere is losing gas to space, via stripping by the solar wind. This loss of gas to space appears to have played a key role in the transition of the Martian climate from an early, warm and wet environment that might have supported surface life to the cold, arid planet we see today.
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#65
by
John44
on 05 Nov, 2015 20:16
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#66
by
redliox
on 05 Nov, 2015 22:38
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This is definitely what we hoped MAVEN would find out. I'd say now InSight is the counterpart to find out what the Martian interior says. Between the two, we'll get a complete picture of ancient Mars.
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#67
by
catdlr
on 02 Dec, 2016 02:47
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bump....
The MAVEN Mission and Mars’ Auroras
NASA MAVEN Mission to Mars
Published on Dec 1, 2016
The NASA MAVEN mission has been studying Mars’ climate evolution since September 2014, particularly the loss of its atmosphere to space due to interactions with the sun and the solar wind. Among its discoveries, MAVEN has observed auroras in unexpected locations in the Martian atmosphere.
In this Nov. 30, 2016 webinar, Dr. Nick Schneider from the University of Colorado Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) and lead scientist for MAVEN’s Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph discusses MAVEN’s discoveries and the different types of auroras on Mars.
(this is an unlisted video)
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#68
by
Space Ghost 1962
on 02 Mar, 2017 19:24
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NASA Orbiter Steers Clear of Mars Moon PhobosNASA’s MAVEN spacecraft performed a previously unscheduled maneuver this week to avoid a collision in the near future with Mars’ moon Phobos.
... On Tuesday the spacecraft carried out a rocket motor burn that boosted its velocity by 0.4 meters per second (less than 1 mile per hour). Although a small correction, it was enough that -- projected to one week later when the collision would otherwise have occurred -- MAVEN would miss the lumpy, crater-filled moon by about 2.5 minutes.
Oops.
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#69
by
jacqmans
on 31 Mar, 2017 12:23
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March 30, 2017
RELEASE 17-033
NASA's MAVEN Reveals Most of Mars' Atmosphere Was Lost to Space
Solar wind and radiation are responsible for stripping the Martian atmosphere, transforming Mars from a planet that could have supported life billions of years ago into a frigid desert world, according to new results from NASA's MAVEN spacecraft.
"We've determined that most of the gas ever present in the Mars atmosphere has been lost to space," said Bruce Jakosky, principal investigator for the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN), University of Colorado in Boulder. The team made this determination from the latest results, which reveal that about 65 percent of the argon that was ever in the atmosphere has been lost to space. Jakosky is lead author of a paper on this research to be published in Science on Friday, March 31.
In 2015, MAVEN team members previously announced results that showed atmospheric gas is being lost to space today and described how atmosphere is stripped away. The present analysis uses measurements of today’s atmosphere for the first estimate of how much gas was lost through time.
Liquid water, essential for life, is not stable on Mars' surface today because the atmosphere is too cold and thin to support it. However, evidence such as features resembling dry riverbeds and minerals that only form in the presence of liquid water indicates the ancient Martian climate was much different – warm enough for water to flow on the surface for extended periods.
“This discovery is a significant step toward unraveling the mystery of Mars' past environments,“ said Elsayed Talaat, MAVEN Program Scientist, at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “In a broader context, this information teaches us about the processes that can change a planet’s habitability over time.”
There are many ways a planet can lose some of its atmosphere. For example, chemical reactions can lock gas away in surface rocks, or an atmosphere can be eroded by radiation and a stellar wind from a planet's parent star. The new result reveals that solar wind and radiation were responsible for most of the atmospheric loss on Mars, and the depletion was enough to transform the Martian climate. The solar wind is a thin stream of electrically conducting gas constantly blowing out from the surface of the sun.
The early Sun had far more intense ultraviolet radiation and solar wind, so atmospheric loss by these processes was likely much greater in Mars' history. According to the team, these processes may have been the dominant ones controlling the planet's climate and habitability. It's possible microbial life could have existed at the surface early in Mars’ history. As the planet cooled off and dried up, any life could have been driven underground or forced into rare surface oases.
Jakosky and his team got the new result by measuring the atmospheric abundance of two different isotopes of argon gas. Isotopes are atoms of the same element with different masses. Since the lighter of the two isotopes escapes to space more readily, it will leave the gas remaining behind enriched in the heavier isotope. The team used the relative abundance of the two isotopes measured in the upper atmosphere and at the surface to estimate the fraction of the atmospheric gas that has been lost to space.
As a "noble gas" argon cannot react chemically, so it cannot be sequestered in rocks; the only process that can remove noble gases into space is a physical process called "sputtering" by the solar wind. In sputtering, ions picked up by the solar wind can impact Mars at high speeds and physically knock atmospheric gas into space. The team tracked argon because it can be removed only by sputtering. Once they determined the amount of argon lost by sputtering, they could use this information to determine the sputtering loss of other atoms and molecules, including carbon dioxide (CO2).
CO2 is of interest because it is the major constituent of Mars' atmosphere and because it's an efficient greenhouse gas that can retain heat and warm the planet. "We determined that the majority of the planet's CO2 was also lost to space by sputtering," said Jakosky. "There are other processes that can remove CO2, so this gives the minimum amount of CO2 that's been lost to space."
The team made its estimate using data from the Martian upper atmosphere, which was collected by MAVEN's Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer (NGIMS). This analysis included measurements from the Martian surface made by NASA's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument on board the Curiosity rover.
"The combined measurements enable a better determination of how much Martian argon has been lost to space over billions of years," said Paul Mahaffy of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "Using measurements from both platforms points to the value of having multiple missions that make complementary measurements." Mahaffy, a co-author of the paper, is principal investigator on the SAM instrument and lead on the NGIMS instrument, both of which were developed at NASA Goddard.
The research was funded by the MAVEN mission. MAVEN's principal investigator is based at the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder, and NASA Goddard manages the MAVEN project. MSL/Curiosity is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.
For more information on MAVEN, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/maven
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#70
by
clongton
on 01 Apr, 2017 19:27
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Far be it from me to question the experts as they explain natural processes in the context of ancient and existing environments, but I have asked this question several times in several different places and to date no one has been capable of providing a satisfactory answer. So let me ask this again.
First both Venus and Mars have been shown to have a magnetic reconnection in their magnetotails so any statement that it protects Venus but does not protect Mars is without merit. With regard to solar wind stripping away a planet's atmosphere, I would point out that Mars is approximately 2-1/2 times further from the sun than Venus and the strength of the solar wind decreases with the square of the distance. Like Mars, Venus has no internally generated magnetic field to protect its atmosphere from the solar wind. Venus is ~67 million miles from the sun and Mars is ~142 million miles away, almost 2-1/2 times further away. So how is it that the diminished solar wind at Mars has stripped Mars of its atmosphere and yet has left Venus unscathed from the much stronger winds it endured?
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#71
by
Kaputnik
on 01 Apr, 2017 20:49
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Much lower escape velocity on Mars?
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#72
by
Lee Jay
on 01 Apr, 2017 21:07
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Much lower escape velocity on Mars?
Sounds reasonable to me.
Surface gravity:
Venus: 8.87m/s^2
Mars: 3.71m/s^2
Escape velocity:
Venus: 10.36km/s
Mars: 5.03km/s
Pretty large differences.
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#73
by
clongton
on 02 Apr, 2017 18:08
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Much lower escape velocity on Mars?
Sounds reasonable to me.
Surface gravity:
Venus: 8.87m/s^2
Mars: 3.71m/s^2
Escape velocity:
Venus: 10.36km/s
Mars: 5.03km/s
Pretty large differences.
Which is mostly mitigated by the vastly reduced force of the solar wind at 2-1/2 times the distance from the sun, which reduces by the square of the distance.
I am not asserting they are incorrect. What I am saying is that their reasoning doesn't make sense without explaining that very obvious caveat. Until it is explained I can accept that conclusion only as a possibility, not as conclusive.
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#74
by
Phil Stooke
on 02 Apr, 2017 18:24
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I am far from being an expert on this topic, so I have to rely on Wikipedia, like my students. And the atmospheric escape page (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_escape#Comparison_of_non-thermal_loss_processes_based_on_planet_and_particle_mass) includes this statement:
The dominant non-thermal loss process on Mars is from solar winds, as the atmosphere is not dense enough to shield itself from the winds during peak solar activity. Venus is somewhat shielded from solar winds because of its denser atmosphere and as a result, solar pick-up is not its dominant non-thermal loss process.
So it seems there are differences in the process between the two planets. Perhaps the citations in that article will explain the situation more fully.
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#75
by
a_langwich
on 02 Apr, 2017 18:34
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Much lower escape velocity on Mars?
Sounds reasonable to me.
Surface gravity:
Venus: 8.87m/s^2
Mars: 3.71m/s^2
Escape velocity:
Venus: 10.36km/s
Mars: 5.03km/s
Pretty large differences.
Which is mostly mitigated by the vastly reduced force of the solar wind at 2-1/2 times the distance from the sun, which reduces by the square of the distance.
I am not asserting they are incorrect. What I am saying is that their reasoning doesn't make sense without explaining that very obvious caveat.
I'm not sure the "force" of the solar wind is a key driver. How many particles per unit area are arriving isn't as important as the speed to which an individual particle can accelerate a piece of the atmosphere. If 2 1/2 times, or four times, or twenty times, as many particles come in and collide, but the results of those increased number of collisions is still below escape velocity, the result is no loss of atmosphere.
(This is put in a black and white fashion, when really we are speaking probabilistically with distribution profiles, but I think the logic is recognizable and extendable).
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#76
by
Dalhousie
on 02 Apr, 2017 22:31
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This is definitely what we hoped MAVEN would find out. I'd say now InSight is the counterpart to find out what the Martian interior says. Between the two, we'll get a complete picture of ancient Mars.
Only the grossest of outlines. We will never get a complete picture of ancient Mars, to even get a good picture will require detailed studies at many sites.
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#77
by
CuddlyRocket
on 03 Apr, 2017 11:03
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Much lower escape velocity on Mars?
Sounds reasonable to me.
Surface gravity:
Venus: 8.87m/s^2
Mars: 3.71m/s^2
Escape velocity:
Venus: 10.36km/s
Mars: 5.03km/s
Pretty large differences.
Which is mostly mitigated by the vastly reduced force of the solar wind at 2-1/2 times the distance from the sun, which reduces by the square of the distance.
I am not asserting they are incorrect. What I am saying is that their reasoning doesn't make sense without explaining that very obvious caveat.
I'm not sure the "force" of the solar wind is a key driver. How many particles per unit area are arriving isn't as important as the speed to which an individual particle can accelerate a piece of the atmosphere. If 2 1/2 times, or four times, or twenty times, as many particles come in and collide, but the results of those increased number of collisions is still below escape velocity, the result is no loss of atmosphere.
(This is put in a black and white fashion, when really we are speaking probabilistically with distribution profiles, but I think the logic is recognizable and extendable).
'The speed to which an individual particle can accelerate a piece of the atmosphere' depends on its momentum and energy and therefore on its mass and velocity. Mass is the same at Venus and Mars, but the velocity of the solar wind isn't. One would expect that the solar wind would slow as it climbs out of the Sun's gravity well, but in fact it accelerates (for reasons that seem poorly understood!). Unfortunately, I couldn't find any actual figures!
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#78
by
Star One
on 11 Apr, 2017 20:39
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NASA's MAVEN reveals Mars has metal in its atmosphere
Mars has electrically charged metal atoms (ions) high in its atmosphere, according to new results. The metal ions can reveal previously invisible activity in the mysterious electrically charged upper atmosphere (ionosphere) of Mars.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170410154724.htm
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#79
by
Star One
on 19 Oct, 2017 20:21
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NASA’s MAVEN Mission Finds Mars Has a Twisted TailMars has an invisible magnetic “tail” that is twisted by interaction with the solar wind, according to new research using data from NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft.
NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN) spacecraft is in orbit around Mars gathering data on how the Red Planet lost much of its atmosphere and water, transforming from a world that could have supported life billions of years ago into a cold and inhospitable place today. The process that creates the twisted tail could also allow some of Mars’ already thin atmosphere to escape to space, according to the research team.
“We found that Mars’ magnetic tail, or magnetotail, is unique in the solar system,” said Gina DiBraccio of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “It’s not like the magnetotail found at Venus, a planet with no magnetic field of its own, nor is it like Earth’s, which is surrounded by its own internally generated magnetic field. Instead, it is a hybrid between the two.” DiBraccio is project scientist for MAVEN and is presenting this research at a press briefing Thursday, Oct. 19 at 12:15pm MDT during the 49th annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences in Provo, Utah.
The team found that a process called “magnetic reconnection” must have a big role in creating the Martian magnetotail because, if reconnection were occurring, it would put the twist in the tail.
“Our model predicted that magnetic reconnection will cause the Martian magnetotail to twist 45 degrees from what’s expected based on the direction of the magnetic field carried by the solar wind,” said DiBraccio. “When we compared those predictions to MAVEN data on the directions of the Martian and solar wind magnetic fields, they were in very good agreement.”
Mars lost its global magnetic field billions of years ago and now just has remnant “fossil” magnetic fields embedded in certain regions of its surface. According to the new work, Mars’ magnetotail is formed when magnetic fields carried by the solar wind join with the magnetic fields embedded in the Martian surface in a process called magnetic reconnection. The solar wind is a stream of electrically conducting gas continuously blowing from the Sun’s surface into space at about one million miles (1.6 million kilometers) per hour. It carries magnetic fields from the Sun with it. If the solar wind field happens to be oriented in the opposite direction to a field in the Martian surface, the two fields join together in magnetic reconnection.
The magnetic reconnection process also might propel some of Mars’ atmosphere into space. Mars’ upper atmosphere has electrically charged particles (ions). Ions respond to electric and magnetic forces and flow along magnetic field lines. Since the Martian magnetotail is formed by linking surface magnetic fields to solar wind fields, ions in the Martian upper atmosphere have a pathway to space if they flow down the magnetotail. Like a stretched rubber band suddenly snapping to a new shape, magnetic reconnection also releases energy, which could actively propel ions in the Martian atmosphere down the magnetotail into space.
Since Mars has a patchwork of surface magnetic fields, scientists had suspected that the Martian magnetotail would be a complex hybrid between that of a planet with no magnetic field at all and that found behind a planet with a global magnetic field. Extensive MAVEN data on the Martian magnetic field allowed the team to be the first to confirm this. MAVEN’s orbit continually changes its orientation with respect to the Sun, allowing measurements to be made covering all of the regions surrounding Mars and building up a map of the magnetotail and its interaction with the solar wind.
Magnetic fields are invisible but their direction and strength can be measured by the magnetometer instrument on MAVEN, which the team used to make the observations. They plan to examine data from other instruments on MAVEN to see if escaping particles map to the same regions where they see reconnected magnetic fields to confirm that reconnection is contributing to Martian atmospheric loss and determine how significant it is. They also will gather more magnetometer data over the next few years to see how the various surface magnetic fields affect the tail as Mars rotates. This rotation, coupled with an ever-changing solar wind magnetic field, creates an extremely dynamic Martian magnetotail. “Mars is really complicated but really interesting at the same time,” said DiBraccio.
The research was funded by the MAVEN mission. MAVEN began its primary science mission on November 2014, and is the first spacecraft dedicated to understanding Mars’ upper atmosphere. MAVEN’s principal investigator is based at the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder. The university provided two science instruments and leads science operations, as well as education and public outreach, for the mission. NASA Goddard manages the MAVEN project and provided two science instruments for the mission, including the magnetometer. Lockheed Martin built the spacecraft and is responsible for mission operations. The University of California at Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory also provided four science instruments for the mission. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, provides navigation and Deep Space Network support, as well as the Electra telecommunications relay hardware and operations.
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/goddard/2017/mars-twisted-tail
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#80
by
Tywin
on 14 Feb, 2019 03:08
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MAVEN is moving a more close orbit to Mars, for help the next mission to Mars in 2020:
The operation will reduce the highest point of the MAVEN spacecraft's elliptical orbit from 3,850 to 2,800 miles (6,200 to 4,500 kilometers) above the surface and prepare it to take on additional responsibility as a data-relay satellite for NASA's Mars 2020 rover, which launches next year.
"The MAVEN spacecraft has done a phenomenal job teaching us how Mars lost its atmosphere and providing other important scientific insights on the evolution of the Martian climate," said Jim Watzin, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program. "Now we're recruiting it to help NASA communicate with our forthcoming Mars rover and its successors."
http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/NASAs_MAVEN_spacecraft_shrinking_its_Mars_orbit_to_prepare_for_Mars_2020_Rover_999.html
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#81
by
Chris Bergin
on 05 Mar, 2019 15:27
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#82
by
eric z
on 05 Mar, 2019 23:56
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Thanks for the great article!
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#83
by
Star One
on 25 May, 2020 19:07
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#84
by
Yiosie
on 23 May, 2022 19:44
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Status Update on NASA's MAVEN Spacecraft [dated May 18]
On February 22, 2022, NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft went into safe mode when the spacecraft’s Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) began exhibiting anomalous behavior. The spacecraft is currently out of safe mode, stable and in Earth-nadir mode, pointing its high gain antenna toward Earth to facilitate high-rate communications. In this configuration, however, MAVEN cannot perform communications relays for other spacecraft on Mars and is performing only limited science observations. The mission team began science instrument recovery on April 20.
Safe mode began when the IMUs, navigation instruments that sense the spacecraft’s rotation and control the pointing of the orbiter’s antenna and science instruments, exhibited anomalies when turning on after a power cycle. MAVEN stayed in safe mode until April 19 when the mission team switched the spacecraft to rely on stellar navigation instead of the IMUs, which is known as “all stellar” mode.
All MAVEN’s science instruments are currently online, but not all of them have been able to take data while the high gain antenna is restricted to pointing toward Earth.
The team is currently working to finish checkouts of “all stellar” mode to enable the spacecraft to operate in other orientations prior to resuming nominal science and relay operations by the end of the month.
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#85
by
Yiosie
on 01 Jun, 2022 21:37
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NASA’s MAVEN Spacecraft Resumes Science & Operations, Exits Safe Mode [dated Jun. 1]
NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN, or MAVEN, mission returned to normal science and relay operations on May 28, 2022, after recovering from an extended safe mode event. The spacecraft encountered problems in February with its Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs). The mission team successfully diagnosed the issue with these navigation instruments and developed a system for the spacecraft to navigate by the stars, which should allow for continued MAVEN mission operations through the next decade.
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#86
by
vjkane
on 03 Jun, 2022 00:02
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Apparently the IMU failures came close to ending the mission: ""The safe mode event was — catastrophic is too strong, but I mean, we did get close to losing the spacecraft," Curry said, calling the incident "incredibly serious" and "scary.""
https://www.space.com/nasa-mars-spacecraft-maven-nearly-lost
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#87
by
Blackstar
on 03 Jun, 2022 00:10
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Apparently the IMU failures came close to ending the mission: ""The safe mode event was — catastrophic is too strong, but I mean, we did get close to losing the spacecraft," Curry said, calling the incident "incredibly serious" and "scary.""
https://www.space.com/nasa-mars-spacecraft-maven-nearly-lost
That's not good. And it also highlights the issue of having relay capability at Mars that depends upon a bunch of spacecraft that have gone past their design lifetimes. One thing I remember from when we did the planetary midterm was that people would claim that the relay capability issue was fine based upon available fuel in the orbiters. But there's more to it than just how much fuel they have. Stuff can break. (To be fair, I am sure that when NASA does their technical assessments, they attempt to figure out things that can fail. It's just that fuel was a convenient shorthand that I thought was a bit misleading.)
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#88
by
deadman1204
on 03 Jun, 2022 16:40
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doesnt Maven still have spare unused IMUs?
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#89
by
vjkane
on 03 Jun, 2022 16:57
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doesnt Maven still have spare unused IMUs?
According to the article, both have serious functionality/lifetime issues. No third IMU
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#90
by
ccdengr
on 03 Jun, 2022 17:37
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To be fair, I am sure that when NASA does their technical assessments, they attempt to figure out things that can fail. It's just that fuel was a convenient shorthand that I thought was a bit misleading.
I don't know what you have access to, but the reports the projects produce for senior reviews always have a breakdown of all the things that can fail, not just fuel usage.
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#91
by
Blackstar
on 03 Jun, 2022 17:52
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To be fair, I am sure that when NASA does their technical assessments, they attempt to figure out things that can fail. It's just that fuel was a convenient shorthand that I thought was a bit misleading.
I don't know what you have access to, but the reports the projects produce for senior reviews always have a breakdown of all the things that can fail, not just fuel usage.
The time I'm referring to was 2017-18. NASA was providing assurances that relay was fine for the next 10+ years. The only thing they would share was the fuel state/usage. At that time, NASA was also doing an internal review of the lifetimes. And at that same time, there was some question about moving MAVEN's orbit and how that would affect relay availability vs. science. So what they were providing to us, on the outside, was somewhat superficial. That was the problem.
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#92
by
ccdengr
on 03 Jun, 2022 18:27
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The time I'm referring to was 2017-18. NASA was providing assurances that relay was fine for the next 10+ years. The only thing they would share was the fuel state/usage.
FWIW, see
https://mepag.jpl.nasa.gov/meeting/2022-01/02_Ianson_Meyer_MEP_MEPAG_Feb_2022.pdf slide 16, Status of Aging Mars Relay Network Assets, seems to be pretty explicit about the various factors in relay lifetime. I'm not sure if the same has been true over time. I like the ITAR warning on the bottom of this publicly-accessible slide.
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#93
by
Blackstar
on 03 Jun, 2022 20:21
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I'm not sure if the same has been true over time.
The issue gained more urgency over time. Remember that around 2015 or so, NASA was discussing a Mars Telecom Orbiter (you can find discussion of that on this forum, but you can also look it up in Space News). Then that was canceled. When it was canceled, people naturally asked about what NASA was going to do to supply relay capability, and NASA's response was a somewhat-vague "We've got it covered." Without NASA providing specifics, members of the Mars science community became concerned that this assertion was not fully on the up and up. So NASA had to become more specific.
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#94
by
ccdengr
on 04 Jun, 2022 19:56
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Remember that around 2015 or so, NASA was discussing a Mars Telecom Orbiter... When it was canceled, people naturally asked about what NASA was going to do to supply relay capability, and NASA's response was a somewhat-vague "We've got it covered."
I honestly lose track of how many times dedicated relay missions have been proposed (e.g., back in 2005 there had been one proposed for 2009 that got cancelled, see
https://spacenews.com/nasa-mars-telecom-orbiter-axed-space-agency-priorities-shift/ In 2014 there was a half-hearted industry solicitation for dedicated small relays
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-seeks-proposals-for-commercial-mars-data-relay-satellites that went nowhere) and there is always tension between infrastructure-only and dual-use missions. The science community does have a tendency to want to add science to any mission they can, understandably.
I have no doubt that, in the circles you travel in, someone advanced the glib response you describe. FWIW, in 2017 an MEP presentation to the NAS SSB seemed pretty up-front about the various life-limiting factors of the existing orbiters.
https://sites.nationalacademies.org/cs/groups/ssbsite/documents/webpage/ssb_178329.pdf (slides 6-9).
Down in the trenches far away from NASA HQ, it's always been a given that any of the orbiters could fail for reasons not related to fuel (some are in better shape than others.) And there's no replacement for them on the books right now.
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#95
by
Don2
on 06 Jun, 2022 09:36
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There's not that many science spacecraft that are over 20 years old, so there is a possibility of unusual failure modes that only appear on very old spacecraft. Another issue is that Trace Gas Orbiter is European, so they may prioritize European rovers. Even if it doesn't have good scientific instruments, the Europeans are going to want to drive the fetch rover after it has done it's sample pickup mission. That will be especially true if they have to abandon Exomars.
The Earth Return Orbiter should provide a good relay capability until it departs it 2032. The 2032 Decadal Survey will presumably put together a new Mars architecture, including a new relay. The earliest that relay will arrive will be 2037. So there will be at least a five year period where the relay capability will be very fragile. They will need at least a 24 year lifetime out of MAVEN to avoid a gap in US capabilities. Perseverance will be 17 years old at that time, or 6 years older than Curiosity is now.
NASA might get away with this, but any new landed mission like Mars Life Explorer will be out of the question until a new relay is in place. Maybe the Europeans will fly something if they find a way to save Exomars.
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#96
by
libra
on 06 Jun, 2022 10:05
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#97
by
Blackstar
on 06 Jun, 2022 12:11
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#98
by
AstroWare
on 06 Jun, 2022 12:39
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Wait, Mars Odyssey is still working ? 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_Mars_Odyssey
http://themis.asu.edu/news/themis-60000-orbits
That probe surely had one heck of a ROI. It is the Voyager of all Mars orbiters.
Last year I talked to one of the people who was still attached to Odyssey. I think she told me that 2023 is about the edge of its lifetime. They don't expect it to last beyond then. But maybe that has changed.
Do you remember what she said was the driving factor for 2023?
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#99
by
Blackstar
on 06 Jun, 2022 13:08
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Wait, Mars Odyssey is still working ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_Mars_Odyssey
http://themis.asu.edu/news/themis-60000-orbits
That probe surely had one heck of a ROI. It is the Voyager of all Mars orbiters.
Last year I talked to one of the people who was still attached to Odyssey. I think she told me that 2023 is about the edge of its lifetime. They don't expect it to last beyond then. But maybe that has changed.
Do you remember what she said was the driving factor for 2023?
I think it really is fuel. They're very low on fuel. And after so long operating, they should have a very good idea of the fuel expenditure rate.
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#100
by
ccdengr
on 06 Jun, 2022 22:25
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Last year I talked to one of the people who was still attached to Odyssey. I think she told me that 2023 is about the edge of its lifetime.
Documents linked upthread say ODY has 5 kg of fuel left as of late 2021, and uses 1 kg per year. So 2023 seems pessimistic and the mission was extended through 2025 so there is money if it continues to work (unless they lose a reaction wheel, which I haven't heard about but can't rule out.)
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#101
by
Kiwi53
on 07 Jun, 2022 00:31
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The Earth Return Orbiter should provide a good relay capability until it departs it 2032. The 2032 Decadal Survey will presumably put together a new Mars architecture, including a new relay. The earliest that relay will arrive will be 2037.
Surely there's a non-zero chance that by 2032 there will be at least a few Starships and maybe some crew / settlers on Mars surface. If they haven't set up their own Mars data relay satellite system by then, they'd surely have plans well advanced
So there will be at least a five year period where the relay capability will be very fragile. They will need at least a 24 year lifetime out of MAVEN to avoid a gap in US capabilities. Perseverance will be 17 years old at that time, or 6 years older than Curiosity is now.
NASA might get away with this, but any new landed mission like Mars Life Explorer will be out of the question until a new relay is in place. Maybe the Europeans will fly something if they find a way to save Exomars.
I'd guess there's a significant chance of this all being overtaken by events
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#102
by
Zed_Noir
on 07 Jun, 2022 13:09
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The Earth Return Orbiter should provide a good relay capability until it departs it 2032. The 2032 Decadal Survey will presumably put together a new Mars architecture, including a new relay. The earliest that relay will arrive will be 2037.
Surely there's a non-zero chance that by 2032 there will be at least a few Starships and maybe some crew / settlers on Mars surface. If they haven't set up their own Mars data relay satellite system by then, they'd surely have plans well advanced
NASA does not take that as a possibility until a Starship have gotten to Mars. Which have implications for the various government robotic Mars programs. Since it is almost impossible to decontaminated a Starship or a crewed Starship to the current US planetary protection requirements.
So there will be at least a five year period where the relay capability will be very fragile. They will need at least a 24 year lifetime out of MAVEN to avoid a gap in US capabilities. Perseverance will be 17 years old at that time, or 6 years older than Curiosity is now.
NASA might get away with this, but any new landed mission like Mars Life Explorer will be out of the question until a new relay is in place. Maybe the Europeans will fly something if they find a way to save Exomars.
I'd guess there's a significant chance of this all being overtaken by events
We shall see. The future will be clearer after 2023 for explorations in the Mars locale.
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#103
by
Lee Jay
on 07 Jun, 2022 13:26
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The Earth Return Orbiter should provide a good relay capability until it departs it 2032. The 2032 Decadal Survey will presumably put together a new Mars architecture, including a new relay. The earliest that relay will arrive will be 2037.
Surely there's a non-zero chance that by 2032 there will be at least a few Starships and maybe some crew / settlers on Mars surface. If they haven't set up their own Mars data relay satellite system by then, they'd surely have plans well advanced
Most things that can happen have a non-zero chance of happening. However, "non-zero" could mean arbitrarily close to zero, which doesn't seem like something that should be counted on. There's also a non-zero chance that Starship will fail and that SpaceX will be out of business by 2032.
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#104
by
deadman1204
on 07 Jun, 2022 14:00
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So is the plan to do nothing until events force something to happen?
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#105
by
Blackstar
on 07 Jun, 2022 14:09
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So is the plan to do nothing until events force something to happen?
Usually they act before then--the pressure builds, the commentary gets loud, then they take action. That's what their advisory groups are for.
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#106
by
ccdengr
on 07 Jun, 2022 15:28
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So is the plan to do nothing until events force something to happen?
My take FWIW is that ODY and MEX failing will cause no change, MRO failing would cause a lot of concern but probably little action, and TGO or MAVEN failing would result in some action (maybe actual effective action, maybe just a lot of talk.)
As mentioned upthread, the MSR ERO can provide relay for MSR ops, but it's only doing that for an Earth year in the present baseline.
The rovers could be operated with no relay, but the data return would be highly curtailed; I doubt that mode of operation is really viable for anything but survival. But I'm sure they would try.
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#107
by
edzieba
on 07 Jun, 2022 16:08
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With the success of the MarCOs during Insight EDL, one or more could be included as a piggyback payload with a future mission (like the ERO) as a potentially faster option than integrating a relay payload into a science mission, albeit with the cost of likely a shorter relay mission lifetime (due to lack of propellant for orbit raising, and lack of systems redundancy). This adds some additional propellant burden to the host mission for MOI and an extra deployment sequence item for separating the relay cubesat, but also has the benefit that the science mission does not need to expend propellant carting the relay hardware around after that point.
Whilst the MarCO design as-is is not an 'ideal' relay (they orient to the sun the charge the internal batteries using the small onboard panels, then orient for relay and operate off of battery power for a limited period) it may be better than no relay at all, and may be an acceptable operations mode if relay operations are conducted in bursts rather than continuously.
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#108
by
ccdengr
on 07 Jun, 2022 16:18
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With the success of the MarCOs during Insight EDL
The data rate from MarCO was only 8 kbps at most. The rover can do that well direct to earth.
There may be something to this concept, but it would take a larger spacecraft than MarCO.
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#109
by
vjkane
on 08 Jun, 2022 01:10
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The Earth Return Orbiter should provide a good relay capability until it departs it 2032. The 2032 Decadal Survey will presumably put together a new Mars architecture, including a new relay. The earliest that relay will arrive will be 2037.
Surely there's a non-zero chance that by 2032 there will be at least a few Starships and maybe some crew / settlers on Mars surface. If they haven't set up their own Mars data relay satellite system by then, they'd surely have plans well advanced
Most things that can happen have a non-zero chance of happening. However, "non-zero" could mean arbitrarily close to zero, which doesn't seem like something that should be counted on. There's also a non-zero chance that Starship will fail and that SpaceX will be out of business by 2032.
Or that we will find little green women inhabiting Mars who have terrabyte/nanosecond internet and they'll give us a terminal.
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#110
by
deadman1204
on 08 Jun, 2022 14:00
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The Earth Return Orbiter should provide a good relay capability until it departs it 2032. The 2032 Decadal Survey will presumably put together a new Mars architecture, including a new relay. The earliest that relay will arrive will be 2037.
Surely there's a non-zero chance that by 2032 there will be at least a few Starships and maybe some crew / settlers on Mars surface. If they haven't set up their own Mars data relay satellite system by then, they'd surely have plans well advanced
Most things that can happen have a non-zero chance of happening. However, "non-zero" could mean arbitrarily close to zero, which doesn't seem like something that should be counted on. There's also a non-zero chance that Starship will fail and that SpaceX will be out of business by 2032.
Or that we will find little green women inhabiting Mars who have terrabyte/nanosecond internet and they'll give us a terminal.
Are you sure you want to be signing Martian service agreements? I'm reminded of the South Park about Apple's terms of service
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#111
by
ccdengr
on 08 Jun, 2022 15:58
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#112
by
deadman1204
on 08 Jun, 2022 16:24
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For the MarCos, we're forgetting the point that they were never in orbit. They just flew by.
If something is big enough to enter orbit (large enough engine and fuel) can it even be considered a cubesat? I'm assuming ion engines won't ever be powerful enough to do this job.
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#113
by
edzieba
on 08 Jun, 2022 16:35
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With the success of the MarCOs during Insight EDL...
FWIW, "MarCO: Flight Review and Lessons Learned" https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4575&context=smallsat has a lot of interesting info about the MarCO spacecraft, including the fact that both spacecraft were lost after the Mars flyby possibly due to a sun sensor/software issue. Also one had a leaky prop system and wouldn't have lasted much longer anyway.
And this design had nowhere near enough delta V to get into Mars orbit.
I'm aware of one 12U cubesat design that could serve as an orbital relay, some discussion at https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=45678.0
Thanks, that's a great document!
The idea was for any relay craft to piggyback on a host mission through orbit capture, and only detach afterwards (unlike the MarCOs, that detached shortly after Earth departure and free-flew their way to Mars).
MMO looks like it was trying to be a shrunk-down science mission (with an array of instruments and its own communications link) rather than a dedicated relay-only mission. And hit the problem that if it's ride to Mars didn't inject it into the correct orbit it was stuck in the wrong orbit to perform its mission. A relay has a bit more flexibility in that as long as its ground-track can cross the missions it is relaying, it can do its job to some extend (asynchronous transmit/receive separates local bandwidth from return-to-Earth bandwidth).
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#114
by
ccdengr
on 08 Jun, 2022 16:59
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The idea was for any relay craft to piggyback on a host mission through orbit capture, and only detach afterwards...
Sorry, I missed that. But I really don't think the numbers work out on the concept. You want your relay to have high data rate, which means more power, more mass, etc. Seems like the current strategy of piggybacking just the UHF relay system on larger spacecraft and using them as infrastructure makes more sense.
Somebody will suggest laser comm, to which I'd say I'd like to see the mass, power, link margin, pointing budget, and ground infrastructure analyses.
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#115
by
Blackstar
on 08 Jun, 2022 18:11
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If something is big enough to enter orbit (large enough engine and fuel) can it even be considered a cubesat?
"Cubesat" is not a useful term. Think "smallsat," for various definitions of "small."
I'm not sure that a smallsat would make sense for relay purposes, but it might. The problem with small satellites is that they don't scale well--you spend a lot of money on launch and operations and radiation hardening and stuff like that just to get to a planetary distance, and so it doesn't make a lot of sense to spend all that money on a small payload as opposed to a larger payload. But who knows? Maybe there's a good solution out there waiting to be proposed.
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#116
by
JayWee
on 08 Jun, 2022 18:32
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The value of a smallsat relay might not be the bandwitdth, but ground pass availability - especially useful during EDL.
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#117
by
ccdengr
on 08 Jun, 2022 19:12
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The value of a smallsat relay might not be the bandwitdth, but ground pass availability - especially useful during EDL.
Agreed (and hence MarCO), but a couple of points: 1) relay comm during EDL is a nice-to-have, not an absolute requirement. I get why after the MPL failure that people have insisted on it, but it doesn't keep you from crashing, you might just get more insight into why you crashed if you do. 2) what your relay network would look like for some specific future use case depends a lot on that use case. Right now, the only missions on the books are continuing ops for MSL and M2020, and MSR. Nobody is likely to spend money on infrastructure unless there are customers for it.
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#118
by
deadman1204
on 08 Jun, 2022 20:05
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The value of a smallsat relay might not be the bandwitdth, but ground pass availability - especially useful during EDL.
MSR is about WAY more than just landing. There will be a rover and a lander to communicate with.
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#119
by
JayWee
on 08 Jun, 2022 20:44
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The value of a smallsat relay might not be the bandwitdth, but ground pass availability - especially useful during EDL.
MSR is about WAY more than just landing. There will be a rover and a lander to communicate with.
See what ccdengr said.
What is meant - if you want to listen to EDL progress you have to time (and place) it to either:
a) line-of-sight between the Lander and DSN Antenna on Earth
b) line-of-sight between the Lander and some orbital asset.
b) is where the cheap smallsats come in.
For ordinary comm with rover/lander you can just wait.
See for example landing tones generated by the MSL:
https://spaceflight101.com/msl/msl-edl-communications/
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#120
by
deadman1204
on 08 Jun, 2022 20:47
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The value of a smallsat relay might not be the bandwitdth, but ground pass availability - especially useful during EDL.
MSR is about WAY more than just landing. There will be a rover and a lander to communicate with.
See what ccdengr said.
What is meant - if you want to listen to EDL progress you have to time (and place) it to either:
a) line-of-sight between the Lander and DSN Antenna on Earth
b) line-of-sight between the Lander and some orbital asset.
b) is where the cheap smallsats come in.
For ordinary comm with rover/lander you can just wait.
See for example landing tones generated by the MSL:
https://spaceflight101.com/msl/msl-edl-communications/
Isn't this about general lack of communication with assets on the surface? Not just a 5 minute period of time?
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#121
by
Barley
on 08 Jun, 2022 21:37
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The value of a smallsat relay might not be the bandwitdth, but ground pass availability - especially useful during EDL.
MSR is about WAY more than just landing. There will be a rover and a lander to communicate with.
See what ccdengr said.
What is meant - if you want to listen to EDL progress you have to time (and place) it to either:
a) line-of-sight between the Lander and DSN Antenna on Earth
b) line-of-sight between the Lander and some orbital asset.
b) is where the cheap smallsats come in.
I believe there is an additional issue with a). Signal strength.
Insight had line of sight to Earth radio telescopes during landing. The carrier signal was monitored but the signal was too weak to be decoded. The carrier gives a few hints, such as Dopler shift and timing of any loss of signal but of course no telemetry.
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#122
by
ccdengr
on 08 Jun, 2022 21:46
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MSR is about WAY more than just landing. There will be a rover and a lander to communicate with.
As previously described, though, the MSR architecture includes relay from the ERO, so they have this covered. No ERO, no MSR.
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#123
by
ccdengr
on 08 Jun, 2022 21:50
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Insight had line of sight to Earth radio telescopes during landing. The carrier signal was monitored but the signal was too weak to be decoded.
May have been true for Insight, I don't recall for sure. For MER, there were DTE tones that could be used to signal particular operating states (256 possible states); see
https://descanso.jpl.nasa.gov/DPSummary/MER_article_cmp20051028.pdf page 39.
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#124
by
Blackstar
on 09 Jun, 2022 20:47
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Thomas Zurbuchen spoke in front of the Space Studies Board this morning and had some things to say about Mars relay. You may see that reported in the next few days. It wasn't definitive, but it was more than has been said in the past. The gist of it is that NASA is aware that with the cancellation of the Mars Ice Mapper they will have very limited (maybe zero) relay capabilities in the future. They are "aware" of this, but have not announced what they may do about it. They do have more options now than previously, but he did not say what those options are.
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#125
by
Don2
on 11 Jun, 2022 06:34
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I don't think NASA can afford anything until they are past the peak spending for Mars sample return, so nothing will happen until 2027 or so. The question is what is the cheapest possible relay? At Mars the high orbits are cheaper to reach than the low orbits. They could provide reduced communication delays. However, the surface missions may be more interested in minimizing their energy expenditure per bit. There are a lot of design alternatives. However, it is difficult to imagine anything cheaper than the Hope mission, which cost about $200 million.
There are also other needs. After the samples are returned, scientists may discover that certain minerals are associated with exciting science and they might want to map the distribution of those minerals. A higher resolution version of CRISM would be needed for that. And a high resolution camera would help to select future landing sites. A mission that did those jobs and included a relay would set NASA up well for the 2030s. Unfortunately there are a lot of other missions which the Decadal endorsed which will be looking for funds.
The very cheapest way to solve the issue would be if another country builds a Mars mission which included a NASA provided relay. Europe and Japan have built many Earth observation satellites and they have the capabilities to do capable Mars orbiters. Canada and India have also built radar satellites for Earth observation. There is an opportunity for foreign space agencies who could use the relay to barter for access to future NASA landers.
A final possibility is a commercial relay. In the 2020s, India, UAE, China, Japan, Europe and the US will all be active at Mars. A commercial relay would make it possible for cubesats/smallsats to operate around Mars. They could really ring the cash register if some space agency got desperate, or if the current rover fleet lasted longer than expected.
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#126
by
baldusi
on 12 Jun, 2022 04:00
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A final possibility is a commercial relay. In the 2020s, India, UAE, China, Japan, Europe and the US will all be active at Mars. A commercial relay would make it possible for cubesats/smallsats to operate around Mars. They could really ring the cash register if some space agency got desperate, or if the current rover fleet lasted longer than expected.
From what I understand, GEO birds are pretty much deep space hardware, save for navigation and comm payload. GEO birds actually use the Earth to keep its pointing, while all telemetry and control are executed with a permanent beam directly pointed to the bird. But they do perform maneuvers with INS and startrackers when going to its orbital position. Also, the GEO environment is from a radiation and thermal pov pretty much deep space. Doing 15 to 20 years is also par for the course, if you are not worried about orbital debris.
And I say this because the current trend for GEO birds is to significantly reduce their size. So, if putting a bird at a 12 hours inclined orbit (~10,000km) is good enough for comms for all missions (with a strong emphasis on if), a commercial solution might be a relatively low risk approach.
I understand that the Electra UHF package is mostly used for low orbits. And they use the doppler effect to get accurate positional data. But, if their navigational data is precise and have a really accurate clock source, they are halfway from GPS distance, so they could use a couple of passes to get 30m accuracy or so. The lack of atmospheric interference might even help. And I would say that for US/EU industry GNSS clocks is something off-the-shelf.
Now, the real question is: can this be done for the amount of money that NASA can afford in the meantime? I'm not convinced. To be frank, I guess that getting a commercial solution for this would be pretty hard to do it for under 300M. Yes, a GEO small sat is usually 50M to 80M. But you need a completely custom payload, telemetry, tracking and control, plus certifying the apogee engine for deep space maneuvers after 9 months of deep space navigation, and a few extra custom things. I estimate that while it could be done commercially with reasonable risk, it would not really save NASA much money, if at all.
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#127
by
redliox
on 12 Jun, 2022 15:15
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Although I agree on the importance of dedicated com sats over Mars, it's kinda dragging on and there are already a ton of Mars communication threads (including a few I started myself) on this. In this thread I'm more interested in how they're trying to keep MAVEN operational for both communication and science.
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#128
by
Don2
on 12 Jun, 2022 21:18
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#129
by
Vahe231991
on 10 Jun, 2023 01:56
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fter orbiting Mars for eight long years, NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft observed an extraordinary duo of auroras around the Red Planet that resulted from solar storms emanating from the Sun only a few days earlier on August 27. This observation is extraordinary since Mars lacks a global magnetic field so the solar flares must have been very powerful for MAVEN to detect them.
Solar flares are often referred to as space weather, with this series of flares being produced by the Sun on August 27, and were followed by what’s known as a coronal mass ejection (CME). This CME impacted the weak Martian magnetic field a few days later and created what’s known as a solar energetic particle (SEP) event, which was one of the brightest ever observed by MAVEN.
“By utilizing space weather models of CME propagation, we determined when the structure would arrive and impact Mars,” said Dr. Christina Lee, who is a space physicist in the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, a member of the MAVEN mission team, and also works with the Moon to Mars Space Weather Analysis Office scientists. “This allowed the MAVEN team to anticipate some exciting disturbances in Mars’ atmosphere from the impacts of the interplanetary CME and the associated SEPs.”
https://www.universetoday.com/158678/nasas-maven-witnessed-auroras-as-multiple-solar-storms-crashed-into-mars/ [from November 16, 2022]
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#130
by
ddspaceman
on 10 Jun, 2024 19:19
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