RocketSTEM Issue #9 - October 2014 | Page 36

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 34 34 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 www.RocketSTEM .org