With a suite of new national and international spacecraft primed to explore the Red Planet after their arrival next month, NASA’s MAVEN mission is ready to provide support and continue its study of the Martian atmosphere.
MAVEN launched in November 2013 and entered the Martian atmosphere roughly
a year later. Since that time, MAVEN has made fundamental contributions to
understanding the history of the Martian atmosphere and climate. A
few science highlights include:
- Determination that the bulk of the Martian atmosphere has been lost to
space through time, driving changes in the Mars climate and the ability to
support life at the surface.
- Characterization of the mechanisms by which gas is stripped away from
the atmosphere to space and of the role of solar storms hitting Mars in
enhancing the escape rate.
- There is significant unexpected variability in the loss rate of
hydrogen to space through the seasons, which has important implications
for the history of water.
- Discovery of two new types of aurora at Mars, and characterization of
all three types of aurora and of their causal mechanisms.
- First comprehensive measurements of winds in the Martian upper
atmosphere, indicating substantial (and unexpected) interaction between
different layers in the atmosphere.
- Revealed the unexpected complexity and dynamic nature of the Martian
magnetosphere, with its influence on the behavior of the upper atmosphere
(including variability in escape and occurrence of aurora).
Now with arrival of the Perseverance rover to the surface of the planet in
February, MAVEN will continue to carry out both relay communications support
for NASA’s surface missions and joint data analysis with these missions and
with the orbiters already at Mars. In addition, MAVEN will be working on
collaborative data analysis with the current missions and with the missions
about to arrive at Mars.
Last year, in preparation for providing communications relay support, MAVEN
reduced the highest altitude in its orbit using an aerobraking maneuver, a
process taking advantage of the Martian upper atmosphere to place a small
amount of drag on the spacecraft. MAVEN also adjusted the orientation of
its orbit, to better monitor data from Mars 2020 during its entry, descent and
landing.
When not conducting relay communications, MAVEN will continue to study the
structure and composition of the upper atmosphere of Mars. MAVEN has
enough fuel to operate until at least 2030.
MAVEN’s principal investigator is based at the University of Colorado’s
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder, which also leads science
operations. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages
the MAVEN project. Lockheed Martin Space built the spacecraft and is responsible
for mission operations. 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.
For more information on the MAVEN mission, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/maven or http://lasp.colorado.edu/home/maven/
Banner image: This illustration shows the MAVEN spacecraft and the limb of
Mars. Credit: NASA/Goddard
NASA’s Goddard Space
Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
No comments:
Post a Comment