Mars MAVEN Is Ready for Launch; Will Arrive on The Red Planet Two Days Ahead of India's Mars Mission
Mars MAVEN Is Ready for Launch
Mars MAVEN is all systems go. NASA says the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission will launch for its mission to orbit Mars to help scientists learn why Mars became inhospitable for life after it started as a warm, wet planet.
The Mars MAVEN project will take 10 months and will arrive next September.
The new Mars orbiter, MAVEN, will give data to tell the story behind what scientists call The Great Escape: the disappearance of a thick, moist atmosphere that converted Mars from warm, wet plant that was may have been hospitable to life into a cold and dry plane.
The Mars MAVEN launch is scheduled for 1:28 PM Eastern Standard Time Nov. 18. The Mars MAVEN craft is 2.7-tons and has a 37.5-foot span.
The Mars MAVEN mission cost $617 million. This is the last mission on the books for a 20-year program to study the red planet. Each mission was designed to lay the groundwork for the next mission.
The MAVEN craft was built based on tweaks from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's design. In the last mission scientists learned how Mars' atmosphere evolved over time and the factors that thinned it.
MAVEN will work closely with the Curiosity rover, which is crossing the Gale Crater on its way to Mt. Sharp. Curiosity will explore rock formations to reveal more about the surface environment on Mars.
During a prelaunch briefing Friday, Omar Baez, a mission launch director said MAVEN "is not as sexy as the rovers going over the planet. This is kind of like a weather satellite for Mars....It's real science."
In August 2012, after Curiosity landed on Mars, MAVEN's lead scientist Bruce Jakosky, a planetary scientist at the University of Colorado at Boulder, said "I think it's that valuable and that important for understanding Mars."
MAVEN should arrive at Mars about two days ahead of India's orbiter. India's $71-million Mars Orbiter which was launched Nov. 5, will remain in orbit around Earth until Nov. 30, when India's space agency will ignite the final engine burn and set it on course for Mars.
