MAVEN will investigate
Mars transition from its
ancient, water-covered
past, to the cold, dry, dusty
world that it has become
today. It is NASA’s first
orbiter specifically dedicate
to investigate the planets
thin upper atmosphere and
begin solving the riddles
of Mars’ climate mysteries,
atmospheric and water
loss and habitability.
“Where did the water
go and where did the
carbon dioxide go from the
early atmosphere? What
were the mechanisms?”
First image of the Earth taken by the Mars Orbiter Spacecraft
notes Jakosky.
taken on Nov 19, 2013 from 67975 km altitude. Credit: ISRO
The 5,400 pound MAVEN
probe carries nine sensors
Air Force Station’s Space Launch
in three instrument suites to study why Complex 41 atop a powerful
and exactly when did Mars undergo
Atlas V rocket and thus began a
the radical climatic transformation.
10 month interplanetary voyage
from Earth to the Red Planet.
“I’m really looking forward to
getting to Mars and starting our
MOM
science!” Jakosky told me recently.
MAVEN thundered to space on
With MOM’s orbital insertion at the
Nov. 18, 2013 following a flawless
Red Planet, India joined an elite club
blastoff from Cape Canaveral
of only three other entities who have
Taken using India’s Mars Color Camera from an altitude of 8449 km, this image has a spatial resolution
of 439 m and is centered around Lat: 20.01N, Lon:31.54E. Credit: ISRO
36
36
launched probes that successfully
investigated Mars - following the
Soviet Union, the United States and
the European Space Agency (ESA).
Wild applause erupted with
beaming smiles from ear to ear at
India’s Bangalore mission control
center after signals confirming
a successful full duration firing of
the crafts engines for 24 minutes
and 13 seconds for the crucial
Mars Orbital Insertion (MOI)
maneuver that placed MOM into
orbit, were received precisely
as planned at 10:30 p.m. EDT
(Sept. 23) or 8:00 IST (Sept. 24).
Traveling at the speed of light
it took nearly 12.5 minutes for the
good news signals to arrive on Earth
from Mars across the vast expanse
of some 140 million miles (225 million
kilometers) of interplanetary space.
MOM’s Red Planet arrival was
webcast live worldwide by the
Indian Space Research Organization
(ISRO), India’s space agency
which designed and developed
the orbiter. ISRO’s website also
gave a play by play in real time,
announcing the results of critical
spacecraft actions along the arrival
timeline just moments after they
became known to the engineers.
The do-or-die MOI breaking
maneuver slowed MOM’s velocity
by 1099 m/s (2457 mph) vs. an
expected 1098.7 m/s - using the
combined thrust of the 440 Newton
Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM)
main engine and eight smaller 22
newton liquid fueled engines.
The entire MOI maneuver took
place fully autonomously under
the spacecrafts preprogrammed
sole control due to the long
communications lag time and also
during a partial communications
blackout when the probe was
traveling behind Mars and
the signal was blocked.
“India has successfully reached
Mars!” declared Indian prime
minister Narendra Modi, who
watched the events unfold
from mission control at ISRO’s
Telemetry, Tracking and Command
Network (ISTRAC) in Bangalore.
“History has been created today.
We have dared to reach out into the
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