NASA’s Mars probe mission MAVEN, successfully made 1000 orbits around the red planet within 4.5 months on April 6 this year. The spacecraft was launched in 2013 with the intention of studying the upper and lower atmospheric layers of Mars in order to help scientists understand how these affect each other. There’s also a lot of interest in calculating how the leakage of the planet’s atmospheric gases into space altered the Martian climate through the uncounted years.
MAVEN is short for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN, a mission which took off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on November 18, 2013 and entered the planet’s orbit on September 21, 2014. It was the first ever spacecraft to have been sent into orbit with the key goal of unraveling the mysteries of the Martian upper atmosphere. It began collecting data from November 16 of last year and continues to be in a fit enough state to stick to its purpose.
MAVEN’s principal investigator is Bruce Jakosky from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder. He notes that the NASA spacecraft as well as all the instruments aboard are in proper working order. Scientists are using the collated data to piece together an idea of the structure and composition of Mars’ upper atmosphere, how loss of gas to space takes place and the processes that play a role in controlling the Martian upper atmosphere.
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MAVEN is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt (Maryland). The furthest point in its elliptical orbit has been 6500km and the closest, 130km above the surface of Mars. Two interesting phenomena were recorded quite recently – an inexplicable high-altitude dust cloud and a bright ultraviolet auroral glow spanning the red planet’s northern hemisphere.