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NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatiles Evolution (MAVEN)
spacecraft is seen inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility on Aug. 3.
2013 at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. MAVEN will be prepared
inside the facility for its scheduled November launch to Mars.
NASA's next spacecraft going to Mars arrived Friday, Aug. 2, at the agency's
Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and is now perched in a cleanroom to begin
final preparations for its November launch.
The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft is undergoing
detailed testing and fueling prior to being moved to its launch pad. The mission
has a 20-day launch period that opens Nov. 18.
The spacecraft will conduct the first mission dedicated to surveying the
upper atmosphere of Mars. Scientists expect to obtain unprecedented data that
will help them understand how the loss of atmospheric gas to space may have
played a part in changing the planet's climate.
"We're excited and proud to ship the spacecraft right on schedule," said
David Mitchell, MAVEN project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in
Greenbelt, Md. "But more critical milestones lie ahead before we accomplish our
mission of collecting science data from Mars. I firmly believe the team is up to
the task. Now we begin the final push to launch."
Over the weekend, the team confirmed the spacecraft arrived in good
condition. They removed the spacecraft from the shipping container and secured
it to a rotation fixture in the cleanroom. In the next week, the team will
reassemble components previously removed for transport. Further checks prior to
launch will include software tests, spin balance tests, and test deployments of
the spacecraft's solar panels and booms.
The spacecraft was transported from Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, Colo.,
on Friday, aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo plane. Lockheed Martin Space
Systems in Littleton, Colo., designed and built the spacecraft and is
responsible for testing, launch processing, and mission operations.
"It's always a mix of excitement and stress when you ship a spacecraft down
to the launch site," said Guy Beutelschies, MAVEN program manager at Lockheed
Martin. "It's similar to moving your children to college after high school
graduation. You're proud of the hard work to get to this point, but you know
they still need some help before they're ready to be on their own."
Previous Mars missions detected energetic solar fields and particles that
could drive atmospheric gases away from Mars. Unlike Earth, Mars does not have a
planet-wide magnetic field that would deflect these solar winds. As a result,
these winds may have stripped away much of Mars' atmosphere.
MAVEN's data will help scientists reconstruct the planet's past climate.
Scientists will use MAVEN data to project how Mars became the cold, dusty desert
planet we see today. The planned one-year mission begins with the spacecraft
entering the Red Planet's orbit in September 2014.
"MAVEN is not going to detect life," said Bruce Jakosky, planetary scientist
at the University of Colorado Boulder and MAVEN's principal investigator. "But
it will help us understand the climate history, which is the history of its
habitability."
MAVEN's principal investigator is based at the University of Colorado
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder. The university provides
science instruments and leads science operations, education and public
outreach.
Goddard manages the project and provides two of the science instruments for
the mission. Lockheed Martin built the spacecraft and is responsible for mission
operations. The University of California at Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory
provides science instruments for the mission. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
in Pasadena, Calif., provides navigation support, Deep Space Network support,
and Electra telecommunications relay hardware and operations.
To learn more about the MAVEN mission, visit:
NASA
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
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