NASA's Maven spacecraft entered Mars' orbit on Sept. 21, equipped with scientific tools to study the Red Planet's upper atmosphere and determine why the planet experienced such drastic water loss.
With all the excitement surrounding NASA’s Mars rover and India’s recent launch of a satellite towards Mars, there’s more good news for scientists studying the Red Planet. NASA’s Maven spacecraft- short for Mars Atmosphere and Evolution- successfully arrived at the upper atmosphere of Mars to begin its orbit.
While the Mars rover is currently exploring the planet’s surface, there has been very little study so far regarding the Red Planet’s atmosphere. Maven is designed to study atmospheric content and determine how Mars lost its water content millions of years ago.
Maven arrived at Mars on Sept. 21 at 10:24 p.m., after its engines fired for 33 minutes in an attempt to let the craft be captured by Mars’ gravitational pull. Controllers at the Lockheed Martin facility in Littleton, CO confirmed that the craft had entered Mars’ orbit.
According to NASA administrator Charles Bolden, “As the first orbiter dedicated to studying Mars’ upper atmosphere, Maven will greatly improve our understanding of the history of the Martian atmosphere, how the climate has changed over time, and how that has influenced the evolution of the surface and the potential habitability of the planet.”
Maven began its journey in November 2013, and traveled 442 million miles in under a year to reach Mars’ orbit. It is scheduled to orbit the Red Planet for a year, collecting atmospheric data that will help scientists understand the planet’s drastic water loss.
Maven is equipped with a variety of scientific tools for different study purposes. The Goddard Space Center-designed Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer will determine atomic makeup of Mars’ upper atmosphere. Solar winds will be studied by the Particles and Fields Package, while the Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph will gather data from the outer atmosphere.
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