Thursday, November 7, 2013

MAVEN (Mars Atmospheric and Volatile EvolutioN)

Now to follow MAVEN.
-LRK-

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MAVEN
Spacecraft
Launch Window: Nov. 18-Dec. 7, 2013
Mars Orbit Insertion: ~Sept. 22, 2014



Overview
MAVEN (Mars Atmospheric and Volatile EvolutioN) is the second mission selected for NASA's Mars Scout program, an initiative for smaller, low-cost, competed missions led by a principal investigator. Responsive to high-priority science goals listed in the National Academy of Science's 2003 decadal survey on planetary exploration, 
MAVEN will obtain critical measurements of the Martian atmosphere to help understand dramatic climate change on the red planet over its history.
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And not all that much at NASA unless you try the links there.
- LRK -

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MAVEN: Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN

Answers About Mars Climate History
The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission, scheduled for launch in late 2013, will be the first mission devoted to understanding the Martian upper atmosphere.

The goal of MAVEN is to determine the role that loss of atmospheric gas to space played in changing the Martian climate through time. Where did the atmosphere – and the water – go?

MAVEN will determine how much of the Martian atmosphere has been lost over time by measuring the current rate of escape to space and gathering enough information about the relevant processes to allow extrapolation backward in time

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Launch window opens Nov. 18, 1:28 PM EST

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MAVEN

The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN), set to launch in 2013, will explore the planet’s upper atmosphere, ionosphere and interactions with the sun and solar wind. Scientists will use MAVEN data to determine the role that loss of volatile compounds, such as CO2, N2, and H2O, from the Mars atmosphere to space has played over time, giving insight into the history of Mars atmosphere and climate, liquid water, and planetary habitability.
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MAVEN at NASA SCINCE.
- LRK -

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MAVEN will carry three instrument suites. The Particles and Fields Package, built by the University of California at Berkeley with support from CU/LASP and Goddard Space Flight Center, contains six instruments that will characterize the solar wind and the ionosphere of the planet. The Remote Sensing Package, built by CU/LASP, will determine global characteristics of the upper atmosphere and ionosphere. The Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer, provided by Goddard Space Flight Center, will measure the composition and isotopes of neutral ions. Lockheed Martin, based in Littleton, Colorado, will provide the MAVEN spacecraft, as well as mission operations for the mission. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will navigate the spacecraft. CU/LASP will provide science operations and data packaging.
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Thanks for looking up with me.  
- LRK -
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -

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Tuesday, November 5, 2013

A Pitcture Perfect Launch for Mars Orbiter Mission

How to get to the Moon, Mars, and Beyond?  
Many ways and the paths are not always the same.
Shoot straight and with enough push, hit the target in the shortest path.
Sling your stone and use various objects to help you along the way. 
The path not so straight and the time, not so short. 
With care, you may still hit the target.  Time will tell.

The Indian Space Agency has just launched a Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM).  
It will take some time, but no one on board and instruments can endure.
-LRK-

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A Pitcture Perfect Launch for Mars Orbiter Mission
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla
2013/11/05 04:11 CST

It was well worth staying up late to watch the PSLV carrying the Mars Orbiter Mission soar off its launch pad today. All four stages of the launch vehicle performed right to expectations, placing the spacecraft into an elliptical orbit of Earth with a perigee of 246.9 kilometers and an apogee of 23,566 kilometers, extremely close to the predicted orbit. I was taken aback by how quickly the rocket shot into the air. I made an animated gif of screen caps.
[Check out Planetary Org  web site - LRK -]
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Info from Universe Today with pictures and updates.
- LRK -

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India’s First Mars Mission Launches Flawlessly on Historic Journey to the Red Planet

by KEN KREMER on NOVEMBER 5, 2013

India flawlessly launched its first ever mission to Mars today (Nov. 5) to begin a history making ten month long interplanetary voyage to the Red Planet that’s aimed at studying the Martian atmosphere and searching for methane after achieving orbit.
The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) thundered to space atop the nations four stage Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) precisely on time at 14:38 hrs IST (9:08 UTC, 4:08 a.m. EST) from the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota, off India’s east coast.
“Our journey to Mars begins now!” announced an elated ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan at the ISRO spaceport during a live broadcast of MOM’s launch from the mission control center. “We achieved orbit and we can all be proud.”

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MOM is the first of two new Mars orbiter science probes from Earth blasting off for the Red Planet this November. Half a globe away, NASA’s $671 Million MAVEN orbiter remains on target to launch barely two weeks after MOM on Nov. 18 – from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
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Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/106127/indias-first-mars-mission-launches-flawlessly-on-historic-journey-to-the-red-planet/#ixzz2jn86MGsv

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Pictures and updates from Space . com

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Liftoff! India's First Mars Probe Launches Toward the Red Planet

by Miriam Kramer, Staff Writer   |   November 05, 2013 05:00am ET
India's first-ever mission to Mars launched into space today (Nov. 5), beginning the country's first interplanetary mission to explore the solar system
With a thunderous roar, India's Mars Orbiter Mission rocketed into space at 4:08 a.m. EST (0908 GMT) from the Indian Space Research Organisation's Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, where the local time will be 2:38 p.m. in the afternoon. An ISRO Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle launched the probe on its 300-day trek into orbit around the Red Planet.
"The journey has only just begun," said ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan after the successful launch. [India's First Mars Mission (Photos)]
Less than an hour after liftoff,  Radhakrishnan reported that India's Mars probe successfully entered a staging orbit around Earth. Mars Orbiter Mission director Kunhi Krishnan describing the launch as a start to a "grand and glorious" mission.
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And comments as to the value of such a Mars mission.
- LRK -

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For ISRO, chance to hide GSLV failures
Johnson T A : Chennai, Tue Nov 05 2013, 05:32 hrs

A successful launch of the Mars mission, set to be launched on Tuesday, will help Isro hide away a series of failures that its has experienced in recent times, particularly the setbacks in the development of its heavy lift Geo Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) which it needs to be in the premier league of space nations.
The GSLV programme which will help Isro put heavy communication satellites of the 2000 kg plus category in space, a capability it now lacks, and crucial to Chandrayaan 2 — the space agency's full fledged exploratory mission to moon — has been floundering in recent times with a launch scheduled for August 19 aborted after a leakage was detected in its systems.
Since 2001, in seven attempts to fly the GSLV — which will give India a leg up in the nearly 2 billion dollar commercial communication satellite business — Isro has had complete success only in two flights in the early stages of the development of the rocket technology.
One of the vocal critics of the move to go in for the Mars mission at the cost of focussing on the GSLV development and the Chandrayaan 2 mission has been former Isro chairman G Madhavan Nair who has labelled the Mars mission "useless'' and merely a "showpiece event''.
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Thanks for looking up with me.  
- LRK -




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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -

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