MAVEN’s Debut In Sight

Until the rovers Spirit and Opportunity first landed on Mars nearly a decade ago, Earth’s neighboring planet seemed mysterious and elusive. Today, discoveries on Mars continue to elicit wonder and awe, but many mysteries are being explained, thanks in no small part to University of Colorado Boulder researchers.

An ambitious new $485 million mission, MAVEN, is scheduled to head to the red planet Nov. 18. MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) was designed by LASP, the University of Colorado Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics.

MAVEN’s mission is to determine how Mars’ atmosphere has changed over time, where the atmosphere has gone, whether the planet’s carbon dioxide and water were lost to space, and if so, how much disappeared that way. The mission also will determine how sunlight and solar winds control those processes of change and how they have evolved over time.

LASP became involved with MAVEN after winning a NASA design competition in 2006. Bruce Jakosky, principal investigator in charge of the MAVEN mission and a professor in LASP and the department of geological sciences at CU-Boulder, helped design the project, which has been in the works for nine years.

“We started our thinking on it in 2003, Jakosky said. “We were one of 20 teams that put in full mission proposals. They selected two for a study and to develop our ideas in more detail.”

NASA gave the two finalists money and nine months to flesh out their proposals. CU-Boulder was selected for the flight in 2008.

“We had a year of getting our act together and that put us on a natural flow to launch in 2013,” Jakosky said.

MAVEN will take 10 months to get to Mars. Once it reaches orbit around the planet, the project’s primary science mission will begin. It is slated to take a year, but Jakosky hopes the instruments will last much longer than that, maybe even a decade.

The satellite also will have on board a device that will relay communications with the rovers that are now exploring Mars’ surface.

Researchers at the university have designed and tested eight different scientific instruments that will go up with the MAVEN mission in November.

Final phases of environmental testing are going on now to make sure all instruments are operational and can withstand the rigors of launch and the mission. Once everything is ready to go, MAVEN will be attached to the spacecraft, which is being provided by Lockheed Martin.

In August, the university will ship the spacecraft and instruments to Cape Canaveral, Fla., to get ready for launch.

The Mars mission is an important one and is a testament to the successful, long-lasting partnership between CU-Boulder and NASA.

The University of Colorado Boulder founded LASP 60 years ago when the U.S. government captured German V2 rockets at the end of World War II and engaged universities around the country to put scientific instruments on them to send into space.

Since then, the program has evolved, with more than a dozen instruments currently operating in space. LASP is the only organization, other than NASA iself, that has sent instruments to every planet in the solar system. And even though Pluto is no longer technically considered a planet, LASP also has instruments en route to Pluto.

“It is exciting to see what goes on around here,´ said Jakosky. “The quality of the work; the sophistication of the instruments; the ability of the scientists. It is a wonderful group. I’m thrilled to be part of it.”

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