Tag Archives: MAVEN

Protecting Mars astronauts from space radiation

On Aug. 7, 1972, in the heart of the Apollo era, an enormous solar flare exploded from the sun’s atmosphere. Along with a gigantic burst of light in nearly all wavelengths, this event accelerated a wave of energetic particles. Mostly … Continue reading

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

MAVEN: Deep-dip campaign #4 ends successfully

NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft, in orbit at Mars since Sept. 21, 2014, has completed the fourth deep-dip campaign of its primary science mission. The series of five-day campaigns are designed to lower the periapsis (lowest altitude) of the spacecraft above ‪‎Mars‬ … Continue reading

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , | Comments Off

MAVEN: Deep-dip campaign #4 begins

MAVEN has successfully entered the fourth deep-dip campaign of the mission. Two maneuvers executed over the past two days have placed the MAVEN spacecraft into a deep-dip corridor, with a periapsis altitude of 121.2 km (75.3 mi), where Mars’ atmospheric … Continue reading

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off

MAVEN: Mapping atmosphere by watching stars set

High above the thin Martian skies, NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft is carrying out a mission: determine how Mars lost its early atmosphere, and with it, its water. While previous Mars orbiters have peered down at the planet’s surface, MAVEN is spending … Continue reading

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off

MAVEN increases its orbital period

The MAVEN navigation team successfully performed a period correction maneuver on Wednesday, August 12, which increased the orbital period of the spacecraft to 4 hours & 38 minutes. This maneuver was performed in order to keep the spacecraft within the … Continue reading

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off

MAVEN: 3rd deep-dip campaign successful

To complete the third deep-dip of the mission, the MAVEN spacecraft executed a maneuver with a ∆V (change in velocity) of 3.9 m/sec. The final “walk out” maneuver resulted in a periapsis of 145 km above the surface of Mars, … Continue reading

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off

MAVEN: ‘Walk-out’ from deep-dip #3

After a very successful third deep-dip into the well-mixed portion of Mars’ atmosphere, the MAVEN spacecraft will be commanded to “walk-out” of the current atmospheric density corridor on its way to resuming normal science operations. Raising the periapsis from ~120 … Continue reading

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off

MAVEN: On track in deep-dip maneuver #3

Analysis by the MAVEN navigation team shows that the spacecraft is still within the targeted atmospheric deep-dip corridor. As a result, no maneuver has been made to adjust the location of the spacecraft within the corridor since the beginning of … Continue reading

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off

MAVEN begins third deep-dip campaign

The MAVEN spacecraft has successfully begun its third deep-dip campaign of the mission. On Tuesday, July 7th, the ‪‎MAVEN‬ navigation team executed a maneuver to lower periapsis by 24 km down to 123 km above the surface of ‪Mars‬. At … Continue reading

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off

MAVEN finds Mars behaving like a rock star

If planets had personalities, Mars would be a rock star according to recent preliminary results from NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft. Mars sports a “Mohawk” of escaping atmospheric particles at its poles, “wears” a layer of metal particles high in its atmosphere, … Continue reading

Posted in Reports | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off