NASA’s Mars Atmosphere andVolatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission be-
gan with a smooth countdown and flawless launch from Cape Canav-
eral Air Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41.The United Launch
Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying the 5,400-pound spacecraft lifted off
at 1:28 p.m. EST, on the 18th November. It will take the spacecraft 10
months to reach the Red Planet, with arrival scheduled for Sept. 22,
2014.
Mars is now a cold and dry planet, whereas once it had a dense at-
mosphere, which provided a warm wet environment on the planet’s
surface, which could have supported microbial growth. Scientists be-
lieve the secret behind the climate change can be unravelled by study-
ing the planet’s upper atmosphere. It is postulated that over billions of
years, solar radiation depleted the Mars’ upper atmosphere, allowing
water to evaporate from the planet’s surface.
The projects principal investigator is
Dr. Bruce Jakosky
of the Uni-
versity of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics.
MAVEN’s instrument suite will consist of eight sensors:
Magnetometer
Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer
Langmuir Probe andWaves
Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrometer
SolarWind Electron Analyzer
SolarWind Ion Analyzer
Solar Energetic Particles
SupraThermal And Thermal Ion Composition
Instruments on the spacecraft will be provided by the University of
California, Berkeley, the University of Colorado, Boulder, and NASA
Goddard, with the Centre d’Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements,Tou-
louse, France, providing the sensor for one instrument.
Sensors Head to Mars
Sensor100 November News 2013
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