Nicole Schafer
The Paw Print
Maven is NASA’s new space mission, set to launch November 18th, to go explore the Red Planets Martian atmosphere. Scientists are determined to figure out why Mars’ atmosphere is so much thinner than they believed it was 4 million years ago. MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) is set to launch at the Kennedy Space Center, where teams are working on technical issues and the countdown is targeted to pick up from the T-6 hour, 20 minute mark, at 6:28 a.m. Monday. MAVEN is going to explore the Red Planet’s upper atmosphere, ionosphere, and interactions with the sun and solar wind with the use of:
Magnetometer
Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer
Langmuir Probe and Waves
Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrometer
Solar Wind Electron Analyzer
Solar Wind Ion Analyzer
Solar Energetic Particles
SupraThermal And Thermal Ion Composition
Things to keep in mind about this $671 million mission are: MAVEN is big; the solar-powered MAVEN spacecraft is pretty hefty. While the probe’s body is a cube measuring 8 feet (2.4 meters) on a side, MAVEN spans a total of 37.5 feet (11.4 meters) with its solar panels deployed, making the craft as long as a school bus. MAVEN also weighs 5,410 pounds. This mission is also not a life hunt, the purpose is to understand Mars’ habitability and past, not to find life.
What’s Been Said…