NASA's MAVEN Dips Toward Mars to Study the Planet's Atmosphere

NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft has officially completed the first of five deep-dip maneuvers designed to gather measurements closer to the lower end of the Martian upper atmosphere. The new measurements should tell researchers a bit more about Mars' atmosphere and history.

"During normal science mapping, we make measurements between an altitude of about 150 km and 6,200 km (93 miles and 3,853 miles) above the surface," said Brue Jokosky, MAVEN principal investigator, in a news release. "During the deep-dip campaigns, we lower the lowest altitude in the orbit, known as periapsis to about 125 km (78 miles) which allows us to take measurements throughout the entire upper atmosphere."

The deep dip maneuvers began when team engineers fired the rocket motors in three separate burns to lower the periapsis. Essentially, they "walked" the spacecraft down gently in several smaller steps. Even though the atmosphere at these lower altitudes is very tenuous, it's still thick enough to cause a noticeable drag on the spacecraft. Going to too high an atmospheric density could cause too much drag and heating due to friction that could damage MAVEN and its instruments.

One of MAVEN's major goals is to understand how gas from the Mars atmosphere escapes into space. The researchers also hope to find out how this loss of gas has impacted the planet's climate history through time. As the gas is lost to space, it's removed from the top of the upper atmosphere. But it's the thicker lower atmosphere that controls climate. By studying both the top and bottom layers, MAVEN can learn a bit more about the connections between these regions.

"We are interested in the connections that run from the lower atmosphere to the upper atmosphere and then to escape to space," said Jakosky. "We are measuring all of the relevant regions and the connections between them."

For more information on MAVEN, visit NASA's website.

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