(Newswire.net — September 22, 2014) — “This is such an incredible night,” John Grunsfeld, NASA’s chief for science missions, told The Associated Press.
Flight controllers will spend the next six weeks adjusting Maven’s altitude and checking its scientific instruments. Then Maven will start probing the planet’s upper atmosphere. But it’s not meant to land, the spacecraft will conduct its observations from orbit.
Thereafter, MAVEN will begin its one-Earth-year primary mission to measure the composition, structure and escape of gases in Mars’ upper atmosphere and its interaction with the sun and solar wind, NASA said.
Because of the distance between Earth and Mars, data transmitted by the spacecraft were received by mission controllers on Earth with a 12-minute time delay.
“As the first orbiter dedicated to studying Mars’ upper atmosphere, MAVEN will greatly improve our understanding of the history of the Martian atmosphere, how the climate has changed over time, and how that has influenced the evolution of the surface and the potential habitability of the planet,” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement.
“It also will better inform a future mission to send humans to the Red Planet in the 2030s.” Bolden said.
This is NASA’s 21st shot at Mars and the first since the Curiosity rover landed on the red planet in 2012. Just this month, Curiosity arrived at its prime science target, a mountain named Sharp, set for drilling. The Opportunity rover is also still active a decade after landing.
The primary MAVEN’s mission includes five “deep-dip” campaigns, in which it periapsis, and will be lowered from 150 km (93.2 miles) to about 125 km (77.6 miles) altitude.
Orbital scanning will provide information about where the upper and lower atmospheres meet, giving scientists a full profile of the upper tier, NASA said.
“This was a very big day for MAVEN,” said David Mitchell, MAVEN project manager from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “We’re very excited to join the constellation of spacecraft in orbit at Mars and on the surface of the Red Planet.”
Currently, there are three other active spacecraft orbiting the Red Planet: Mars Odyssey launched in 2001, the European Space Agency’s Mars Express launched in 2003 and NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter launched in 2005.
MAVEN was launched on Nov. 18, 2013, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying three instrument packages. It is the first spacecraft dedicated to exploring the upper atmosphere of Mars.
Two days after MAVEN’s arrival, another spacecraft, India’s Mars Orbiter Mission, is expected to enter the Red Planet’s orbit. It was also launched in November.
MAVEN is the 10th orbiter the US space agency sends to Mars, three of them have failed.