Following jus two days after the arrival of NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft at Mars (see previous post), India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) probe will go into orbit around the Red Planet on Wednesday September 24th.
This is the first deep space mission by India. The probe was launched into earth orbit on Nov. 5, 2013 via a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket from the Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradeshand.
On Dec. 1, 2013 MOM fired its engine to send it on a trajectory to intersect with Mars this week.
On Monday Sept. 22, there will be a brief 4 second firing test of the engine to insure it is still working correctly after its long dormancy. Then on Wednesday MOM will fire the engine for 24 minutes to go into orbit around Mars.
A top goal of the Mars Orbiter Mission is to strengthen the technical capabilities of the Indian space program. The scientific goals of the mission are to study the Martian atmosphere and the morphology and mineralogy of the planet’s surface.
NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft is set to go into orbit around the Red Planet this evening at 9:50 pm EDT. NASA TV coverage of the event starts at 9:30 pm EDT and lasts till 10:45 pm EDT.
NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft successfully entered Mars’ orbit at 10:24 p.m. EDT Sunday, Sept. 21, where it now will prepare to study the Red Planet’s upper atmosphere as never done before. MAVEN is the first spacecraft dedicated to exploring the tenuous upper atmosphere of Mars.
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Below is a NASA item about the arrival of MAVEN at Mars:
NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft is nearing its scheduled Sept. 21 insertion into Martian orbit after completing a 10-month interplanetary journey of 442 million miles (711 million kilometers).
Flight Controllers at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Littleton, Colorado, will be responsible for the health and safety of the spacecraft throughout the process. The spacecraft’s mission timeline will place the spacecraft in orbit at approximately 6:50 p.m. PDT (9:50 p.m. EDT).
“So far, so good with the performance of the spacecraft and payloads on the cruise to Mars,” said David Mitchell, MAVEN project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “The team, the flight system, and all ground assets are ready for Mars orbit insertion.”
The orbit-insertion maneuver will begin with the brief firing of six small thruster engines to steady the spacecraft. The engines will ignite and burn for 33 minutes to slow the craft, allowing it to be pulled into an elliptical orbit with a period of 35 hours.
Following orbit insertion, MAVEN will begin a six-week commissioning phase that includes maneuvering the spacecraft into its final orbit and testing its instruments and science-mapping commands. Thereafter, MAVEN will begin its one-Earth-year primary mission to take measurements of the composition, structure and escape of gases in Mars’ upper atmosphere and its interaction with the sun and solar wind.
“The MAVEN science mission focuses on answering questions about where did the water that was present on early Mars go, about where did the carbon dioxide go,” said Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator from the University of Colorado, Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. “These are important questions for understanding the history of Mars, its climate, and its potential to support at least microbial life.”
MAVEN launched Nov. 18, 2013, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying three instrument packages. It is the first spacecraft dedicated to exploring the upper atmosphere of Mars. The mission’s combination of detailed measurements at specific points in Mars’ atmosphere and global imaging provides a powerful tool for understanding the properties of the Red Planet’s upper atmosphere.
“MAVEN is another NASA robotic scientific explorer that is paving the way for our journey to Mars,” said Jim Green, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Together, robotics and humans will pioneer the Red Planet and the solar system to help answer some of humanity’s fundamental questions about life beyond Earth.”
The spacecraft’s principal investigator is based at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at University of Colorado, Boulder. The university provided two science instruments and leads science operations, as well as education and public outreach, for the mission.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the project and also provided two science instruments for the mission. Lockheed Martin built the spacecraft and is responsible for mission operations. The Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley provided four science instruments for MAVEN. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, provides navigation and Deep Space Network support, and Electra telecommunications relay hardware and operations. JPL manages the Mars Exploration Program for NASA.
“NASA is committed to engaging the public, and specifically the maker community through innovative activities like the Mars Balance Mass Challenge,” said NASA Chief Technologist David Miller. “And NASA Solve is a great way for members of the public, makers and other citizen scientists to see all NASA challenges and prizes in one location.”
The Mars Balance Mass Challenge seeks design ideas for small science and technology payloads that could potentially provide dual purpose as ejectable balance masses on spacecraft entering the Martian atmosphere.
The payloads will serve two roles: perform scientific or technology functions that help us learn more about the Red Planet, and provide the necessary weight to balance planetary landers.
Submissions are due by Nov. 21. A winner will be announced in mid-January 2015 and receive an award of $20,000.
“We want people to get involved in our journey to Mars,” said Lisa May, lead program executive for NASA’s Mars exploration program. “This challenge is a creative way to bring innovative ideas into our planning process, and perhaps help NASA find another way to pack more science and technology into a mission.”
In addition to the challenge and website announcements, NASA is hosting an exhibit at the World Maker Faire through 6 p.m. EDT Sunday, Sept. 21, where citizen scientists and makers can learn about other ways to engage with the space agency, including Centennial Challenges, the CubeSat program, a 3-D printer challenge, and the Asteroid Grand Challenge.
The exhibit also features information on a NASA mission that will mark a major milestone Sunday. NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft is scheduled to enter Mars’ orbit at approximately 9:50 p.m., after a 10-month interplanetary journey of more than 440 million miles. NASA Television coverage of the orbit insertion and post-event news conference begins at 9:30 p.m. The broadcast also will be available on the agency’s website.
Launched on Nov. 18, 2013, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, MAVEN is the first spacecraft dedicated to exploring the upper atmosphere of Mars. It is another NASA robotic scientific explorer paving the way for the journey to Mars.
The Mars Balance Mass challenge is managed by NASA’s Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation (CoECI). CoECI was established in coordination with White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to advance NASA open innovation efforts and extend that expertise to other federal agencies. The challenges are being released on the NASA Innovation Pavilion, one of the CoECI platforms available to NASA team members, through its contract with InnoCentive, Inc.
To learn more about MAVEN and view the live broadcast of orbit insertion activities, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/maven
For NASA Television downlink information, scheduling information and streaming video, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv
Imagine living through the post-Golden Age of science fiction and fantasy. What would it be like to experience this journey at the plodding, one day per day pace?
Galactic Journey is a blog written from the point of view of someone living in the past writing about then-contemporary science fiction and fantasy, particularly fiction found in magazines.
What is this madness? Has the writer lost his mind? Or is he lost in time? Perhaps the former, by accident, and perhaps the latter, deliberately. In truth, he lives in the same time as you. In 2009, he embarked on a chronological tour of his voluminous science fiction digest collection at a pace mirroring the march of time, but delayed 55 years. Thus, in February 2009, he began reading the April editions of the magazines he had in his collection.
After four and a half years at this entertaining project, it dawned upon him that he might enjoy sharing the experience with others. If you like it, do let him know!
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