This artist’s concept depicts the early Martian environment (right) – believed to contain liquid water and a thicker atmosphere – versus the cold, dry environment
seen at Mars today (left). NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution is in orbit of the Red Planet to study its upper atmosphere, ionosphere and interactions
with the sun and solar wind. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
MAVEN and MOM arrive safely at Mars
By Ken Kremer
Earth’s invasion fleet at the Red
Planet now stands at a record
breaking seven spacecraft following
the successful arrival of a new
pair of probes from the US and
India in late September 2014.
NASA’s newest Mars mission,
the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile
Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft
successfully entered orbit around
the Red Planet on Sept. 21, 2014
at 10:24 p.m. EDT, to conduct the
first detailed study of the planets
tenuous upper atmosphere and
unlock mysteries on its habitability.
The MAVEN spacecraft completed
the crucial Mars Orbit Insertion
(MOI) maneuver after firing its six
braking thrusters for approximately
34 minutes and 26 seconds.
Space history was made again
two days later when India’s car
sized Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM)
successfully fired its braking rockets
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and arrived in Mars orbit on Sept. 23
EST/Sept. 24 IST on the nation’s first
attempt to explore the Red Planet.
Indeed MOM is India’s maiden
interplanetary voyager ever.
MAVEN
“You only get one shot at Mars
Orbit Insertion and we nailed it,”
said David Mitchell, MAVEN project
manager from NASA’s Goddard
Space Flight Center, Greenbelt,
Maryland, at a post MOI media
briefing at the Lockheed Martin
operations center in Littleton,
Colorado, where the spacecraft
was built. “It was about 11 seconds
longer than planned. My thanks to all
who worked so hard on this project.”
“A post MOI assessment indicated
we are in a stable capture orbit of
approximately 35 hour duration. Five
additional burns will reduce that
to the planned 4.5 hour science
mapping orbit,” Mitchell noted.
MAVEN arrived after a trouble
free and fantastic 10-month
interplanetary voyage of 442 million
miles from Earth to the Red Planet.
“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,” said NASA Administrator
Charles Bolden, in a statement.
“It also will better inform a future
mission to send humans to the
Red Planet in the 2030s.”
NASA is currently building the Orion
crew spacecraft and SLS rocket
to send humans on deep space
destinations to Asteroids and Mars.
MAVEN joined an armada
of five spacecraft already
exploring Mars in great detail but
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