NASA All Set to Launch its Mars Mission 'MAVEN'

NASA announced on Monday that it is all set to launch its first mission to explore the Martian atmosphere on November 18. The spacecraft is currently undergoing its final preparations.

The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission (MAVEN) will blast off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on 1.28 p.m. EST. The spacecraft is designed to examine the upper atmosphere of the Red Plant in an unprecedented detail. The spacecraft will also examine the specific processes on Mars that eventually led to the loss of the Martian atmosphere. On analyzing the data provided by the spacecraft, the scientists hope to gather information on the history of climate change on Mars and also provide information on the history of planetary habitability.

"The MAVEN mission is a significant step toward unraveling the planetary puzzle about Mars' past and present environments," John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, said in a statement. "The knowledge we gain will build on past and current missions examining Mars and will help inform future missions to send humans to Mars."

The 5,410-pound spacecraft will head for its 10-months journey to Mars aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket. On arriving at the Red Planet in September, the spacecraft will settle into its elliptical science orbit. During the mission MAVEN will observe all the latitudes of the Red Planet, The mission's altitude will range from 93 miles to more than 3,800 miles. During the primary mission, MAVEN will carry out five deep dip maneuvers, dropping to an altitude of 78 miles, which marks the lower boundary of the planet's upper atmosphere.

"Launch is an important event, but it's only a step along the way to getting the science measurements," said Bruce Jakosky, principal investigator at the University of Colorado, Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (CU/LASP) in Boulder. "We're excited about the science we'll be doing, and are anxious now to get to Mars."

There are three instrument suites aboard the MAVEN spacecraft. The 'Particles and Fields Package' given by the University of California at Berkeley with support from CU/LASP and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., it has six instruments to characterize the solar wind and the ionosphere of Mars. The global characteristics of the upper atmosphere and ionosphere will be determined by the 'Remote Sensing Package' that is built by the CU/LASP. At the same time, the spacecraft will measure the composition of the Red Planet's upper atmosphere with the help of 'The Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer'.

"When we proposed and were selected to develop MAVEN back in 2008, we set our sights on Nov. 18, 2013, as our first launch opportunity," said Dave Mitchell, MAVEN project manager at Goddard. "Now we are poised to launch on that very day. That's quite an accomplishment by the team."

The principal investigator of MAVEN is based at CU/LASP. MAVEN is required as a communication relay in order to assure the continued contact with the two rovers i.e. Curiosity and Opportunity that are presently supported by the Mars Odyssey launched in 2001 and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter launched in 2005. MAVEN will guard the current assets present on the Red Planet. By launching the spacecraft in 2013m the scientists are blessed with the opportunity to make good observations in the eleven year solar cycle.

This launch comes as good news to all those earthlings who participated in the 'Going to Mars Competition', sponsored by the University of Colorado. MAVEN will carry 1,100 haiku (Japanese-style poems) on its journey to the Red Planet. This competition allowed people to make a personal connection to space, space exploration and science in general. The top five winners-Benedict Smith, Vanna Bonta, Luisa Santoro, Greg Pruett and Fannu Reden. Their Haiku along with personal names will be burned onto a DVD and will be attached to MAVEN before it takes off.