{"id":16824,"date":"2014-11-18T22:04:19","date_gmt":"2014-11-18T14:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/maven-begins-science-mission-at-mars\/"},"modified":"2014-11-18T22:04:19","modified_gmt":"2014-11-18T14:04:19","slug":"maven-begins-science-mission-at-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/maven-begins-science-mission-at-mars\/","title":{"rendered":"MAVEN begins science mission at Mars"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Artist's
Artist\u2019s concept of NASA\u2019s MAVEN spacecraft at Mars. Credit: NASA\/GSFC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NASA\u2019s newest Mars orbiter has formally started a one-year research campaign to study an ancient case of climate change that starved the red planet of water, breathable air and potential life, scientists said Monday.<\/p>\n

The mission\u2019s milestone came after two months of instrument calibrations, test observations and trajectory adjustment maneuvers to lower the MAVEN spacecraft\u2019s altitude after it arrived in Mars orbit Sept. 21.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the formal start of our science mission, we\u2019re on track to be able to carry out our full mission as planned, and the science team is looking forward to an incredibly exciting year,\u201d wrote Bruce Jakosky, the mission\u2019s chief scientist from the University of Colorado at Boulder\u2019s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics.<\/p>\n

The $671 million Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, or MAVEN, mission launched Nov. 18, 2013, to kick off a 10-month cruise to the red planet.<\/p>\n

The robotic probe is fitted with nine scientific instruments to sniff the wispy air at the top of the Martian atmosphere, collecting data researchers will use to look back in time and figure out how Mars transformed from a habitable world to a barren planet void of any detectable life.<\/p>\n

Since MAVEN arrived at Mars two months ago, ground controllers moved the orbiter closer to the red planet through a series of rocket firings. After initially entering an orbit arcing nearly 30,000 miles (44,500 kilometers) from Mars, MAVEN is now circling the red planet at altitudes between 93 miles and about 3,700 miles (150 kilometers to 6,000 kilometers).<\/p>\n

A chance encounter between Mars and a comet was also an early focus for MAVEN. The spacecraft monitored the Martian atmosphere\u2019s reaction as comet C\/2013 A1 \u2014 also known as Siding Spring \u2014 passed within 87,000 miles of the red planet, a near-miss in cosmic terms.<\/p>\n

A fleet of NASA, European and Indian orbiters and rovers joined MAVEN to gather \u201cbonus science\u201d during the cometary flyby.<\/p>\n

MAVEN saw changes as the comet\u2019s dust cloud hit the upper atmosphere of Mars, with one of the craft\u2019s spectrometers seeing a rise in eight different types of metals, including magnesium and iron. The mission collected the first data on the composition of dust streaming away from a comet from the Oort Cloud, a distant ring of tiny icy worlds beyond the planets that are believed to be leftovers from the solar system\u2019s formation, according to NASA.<\/p>\n

An imaging spectrograph on MAVEN measured a spike in ultraviolet emissions high in the Martian atmosphere during the comet flyby, then saw levels return to normal several days later.<\/p>\n

MAVEN\u2019s observations \u201crevealed a tremendous quantity of metal ions that came from cometary dust that entered the atmosphere,\u201d Jakosky wrote. \u201cTheir presence was unexpected, in that the nominal models of the paths taken by dust grains, calculated prior to the comet passage, indicated that no dust would make it all the way to Mars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like NASA\u2019s other Mars orbiters, MAVEN ducked behind the red planet during the comet\u2019s closest approach to shield the spacecraft from dust grains that could have damaged or destroyed the probes in high-velocity impacts.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the observations made both during the cruise to Mars and during the transition phase, we know that our instruments are working well,\u201d Jakosky wrote. \u201cThe spacecraft also is operating smoothly, with very few \u2018hiccups\u2019 so far.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mission mission now turns to its primary purpose of investigating an ancient shift in Martian climate that dried up riverbeds, thinned out the red planet\u2019s atmosphere, and may have doomed Martian life \u2014 if it existed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe evidence shows that the Mars atmosphere today is a cold, dry environment, one where liquid water really can\u2019t exist in a stable state,\u201d Jakosky said in a September press briefing. \u201cBut it also tells us when we look at older surfaces that the ancient surfaces had liquid water flowing over it, and we see evidence for lakes \u2014 for river channels \u2014 a lot of evidence of liquid water that required a very different climate than the one we have today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Data from previous missions lack insight into how and when Mars changed, and MAVEN\u2019s job is to find out what triggered the dramatic climate shift.<\/p>\n

Five times during its one-year prime mission, MAVEN will alter its orbit to dip deeper into the wispy layers of gas enshrouding Mars, plowing through the atmosphere just 77 miles above the red planet.<\/p>\n

The spacecraft is outfitted with instrumentation to keep track of solar activity, measure the make-up of the Martian upper atmosphere, and observe how the atmosphere moves, grows and shrinks during the mission.<\/p>\n

NASA has committed to paying for MAVEN to collect scientific data for at least one year \u2014 until late 2015 \u2014 but the platform has enough fuel to last up to a decade.<\/p>\n

One of MAVEN\u2019s ancillary objectives is to serve as a communications relay platform for NASA\u2019s rovers on the surface of Mars. The space agency relies on orbiters above Mars to function as faster radio links with the rovers than if engineers were forced to communicate with them directly.<\/p>\n

Engineers tested MAVEN\u2019s relay radio Nov. 6 in a linkup with the Curiosity rover. Research is the reason for MAVEN\u2019s existence, but NASA may use the orbiter as a communications conduit more often beginning in 2016.<\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Artist\u2019s concept of NASA\u2019s MAVEN spacecraft at Mars. Credit: NASA\/GSFC NASA\u2019s newest Mars orbiter has formally started a one-year research campaign to study an ancient case of climate change that starved the red planet of water, breathable air and potential life, scientists said Monday. The mission\u2019s milestone came after two months of instrument calibrations, test […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[367,3370],"class_list":["post-16824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-mars","tag-maven"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16824"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16824\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}