NASA's latest Mars spacecraft, Maven, arrived Sunday evening to study the mystery of what happened to the planet's air.
After a 33-minute engine firing, mission controllers received acknowledgment at about 10:25 p.m. Eastern time that Maven was in orbit around Mars.
After a six-week period to turn on and check systems on the spacecraft and to move it to its final orbit, Maven - the name is short for Martian Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution - is to take detailed measurements of the dynamics of Mars's upper atmosphere.
But first, it will have a sideshow, taking observations of a comet that, by rare happenstance, will make a close flyby of Mars on Oct. 19, passing within 82,000 miles. Mission managers have arranged to activate Maven's eight scientific sensors by then.
Bruce M. Jakosky, a professor of geological sciences at the University of Colorado who is the mission's principal investigator, said the spacecraft would spend five days observing how the comet's dust, traveling at 125,000 miles per hour, might heat up and expand Mars's atmosphere, and how water ice from the comet might bump up the levels of hydrogen.
As a precaution, Maven will be on the other side of Mars when the shower of comet dust is heaviest. 'Just in case there's any dust that might hit us, we'll be shielded by the planet,' Dr. Jakosky said.
On Monday, he will turn his attention to the coming science measurements. Planetary scientists believe that about four billion years ago, the young Mars was blanketed with a thick layer of air - heat-trapping carbon dioxide, in particular - that kept it warmer and wetter than it is today.
Sometime since then, the air thinned, leaving the surface dry and cold. The air molecules could have escaped to space or been transformed by chemical reactions into rock. Maven's eight instruments will take stock of Mars's upper atmosphere and catalog the solar wind particles bombarding the planet.
That will allow the scientists to determine not only the rate at which the atmosphere is disappearing, but also how it is disappearing. The first science results are expected by the spring.
Maven is not the only new visitor to Mars. India's Mars Orbiter Mission, or MOM, is to swing into orbit on Tuesday night Eastern time.
Three other orbiters are currently around Mars - NASA's Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft. NASA also has two rovers, Opportunity and Curiosity, operating on the surface.
Entities 0 Name: NASA Count: 3 1 Name: Dr. Jakosky Count: 1 2 Name: MOM Count: 1 3 Name: European Space Agency 's Mars Express Count: 1 4 Name: India Count: 1 5 Name: Bruce M. Jakosky Count: 1 6 Name: Martian Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Count: 1 7 Name: University of Colorado Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/XLNXJl Title: Success! NASA's Maven Probe Goes Into Orbit Around Mars - NBC News Description: NASA's Maven orbiter entered Martian orbit on Sunday after a journey of 10 months and 442 million miles, opening the way for a mission that could reveal what happened to the Red Planet's air and water. The $671 million mission is designed to study Mars' upper atmosphere for one Earth year.
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