[meteorite-list] NASA Launches MAVEN Mission to Stody Upper Atmosphere of Mars

[Ron Baalke]

November 18, 2013

Dwayne Brown
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov 

Nancy Neal Jones
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
301-286-0039
nancy.n.jones at nasa.gov 

George Diller
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
321-867-2468
george.h.diller at nasa.gov 
     
RELEASE 13-342
     
NASA Launches Mission to Study Upper Atmosphere of Mars

A NASA mission that will investigate how Mars lost its atmosphere and  
abundant liquid water launched into space at 1:28 p.m. EST Monday from Cape  
Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The agency's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft  
separated from an Atlas V Centaur rocket's second stage 53 minutes after  
launch. The solar arrays deployed approximately one hour after launch and  
currently power the spacecraft. MAVEN now is embarking on a 10-month  
interplanetary cruise before arriving at Mars next September.

"MAVEN joins our orbiters and rovers already at Mars to explore yet another  
facet of the Red Planet and prepare for human missions there by the 2030s,"  
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. "This mission is part of an  
integrated and strategic exploration program that is uncovering the mysteries  
of the solar system and enabling us to reach farther destinations."

In the next four weeks, MAVEN will power on and check out each of its eight  
instruments. Upon arrival at Mars in September, the spacecraft will execute  
an orbit insertion maneuver, firing six thrusters that will allow it to be  
captured by Mars' orbit. In the following five weeks, MAVEN will establish  
itself in an orbit where it can conduct science operations, deploy science  
appendages, and commission all instruments before starting its one-Earth-year  
scientific primary mission.

"After 10 years of developing the mission concept and then the hardware, it's  
incredibly exciting to see MAVEN on its way," said Bruce Jakosky, principal  
investigator at the University of Colorado Boulder's Laboratory for  
Atmospheric and Space Physics (CU/LASP) in Boulder, Colo. "But the real  
excitement will come in 10 months, when we go into orbit around Mars and can  
start getting the science results we planned."

MAVEN is traveling to Mars to explore how the Red Planet may have lost its  
atmosphere over billions of years. By analyzing the planet's upper atmosphere  
and measuring current rates of atmospheric loss, MAVEN scientists hope to  
understand how Mars transitioned from a warm, wet planet to the dry desert  
world we see today.

"The team overcame every challenge it encountered and still kept MAVEN on  
schedule and on budget," said David Mitchell, MAVEN project manager at NASA's  
Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "The government, industry and  
university partnership was determined and focused to return to Mars sooner,  
not later."

MAVEN's principal investigator is based at CU/LASP. The university provided  
science instruments and leads science operations, as well as education and  
public outreach, for the mission. Goddard manages the project and provided  
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 provided 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.

For more information about the MAVEN mission, visit NASA's mission website:

http://www.nasa.gov/maven 

-end-