Artist's Concept of MAVEN. Credit: NASA. |
|
| Operator | NASA |
|---|---|
| Major contractors | Lockheed Martin Space Systems, University of Colorado at Boulder, University of California, Berkeley, Goddard Space Flight Center |
| Mission type | Orbiter |
| Satellite of | Mars |
| Launch date | Not launched yet Launch window between November 18, 2013 and December 7, 2013 |
| Launch vehicle | Atlas V 401 |
| Mission duration | One Earth year |
| Power | Solar photovoltaic |
| Orbital elements | |
| Inclination | 75° |
| Periapsis | 140-170 km |
| Orbital period | 4.5 hours |
Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) is a planned space exploration mission to send a space probe to orbit Mars. Scientists conducting the mission will study the atmosphere of Mars. The principal investigator for MAVEN is Bruce Jakosky of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
It is was spawned by NASA's Mars Scout Program, which although discontinued in 2010, yielded Phoenix and MAVEN, as well as numerous missions studies. [1] Mars Scout missions target a cost less than USD$485 million.
Contents |
On September 15, 2008 NASA announced that it had selected MAVEN to be the Mars Scout 2013 mission, a part of the Mars Scout Program.[2][3] There was one other finalist and eight other proposals that were competing against MAVEN to be the Mars Scout 2013 mission. MAVEN will be launched in late 2013 and is planned to enter Mars orbit during the fall of 2014. MAVEN will enter into an elliptic orbit 90 to 3,870 miles above the planet's surface. MAVEN will cost US$485 million. It will focus on collecting data about the Martian atmosphere.
MAVEN will have four primary scientific objectives:
MAVEN's measurements will provide additional scientific context with which to test models for current methane formation in Mars.[5] NASA will launch MAVEN using an Atlas V 401.[6] The launch window is between November 18, 2013 and December 7, 2013. Assuming a November 18 launch, MAVEN will be inserted into Mars orbit on September 16, 2014.
MAVEN's design will be based on those of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey spacecraft. Lockheed Martin Space Systems will build and test the spacecraft.
MAVEN will study Mars' upper atmosphere and how it interacts with the Sun. It will carry instruments to measure characteristics of Mars' atmospheric gases, upper atmosphere, solar wind, and ionosphere.[7] University of Colorado Boulder, University of California, Berkeley and Goddard Space Flight Center will each build a suite of instruments to fly on the spacecraft.
The instrument suites will include:
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||