MAVEN

Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution ( MAVEN ) is a space probe to explore the atmosphere of the planet Mars as part of the Mars Scout program of NASA. The probe was successfully launched on 18 November 2013, an Atlas V rocket.

Background

On 15 September 2008, NASA announced that it has selected the project proposal as MAVEN Mars Scout - 2 mission in 2013. The selection was made against the finalists of " The Great Escape", a likewise atmospheric research mission. These two missions were selected from originally eight proposals.

MAVEN launched an Atlas V ( 401) from Launch Complex 41 (Cape Canaveral ) on 18 November 2013, and is expected to reach Mars in the fall of 2014. MAVEN will pivot into a highly elliptical orbit, which will run between 144 km and 6228 km above the planet's surface. The project costs for MAVEN be 485 million U.S. dollars.

The mission was excluded on October 3, 2013 as the one of the few NASA activities of the Government Shutdown 2013 in order not to jeopardize the scheduled start.

Structure

The structure of the spacecraft based on designs of the spacecraft Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and 2001 Mars Odyssey.

Instrumentation

MAVEN will explore the upper atmosphere of Mars and its interaction with the sun. For this purpose, instruments for detecting the characteristics of the atmospheric gases in the upper atmosphere, the solar wind and the ionosphere on board. The University of Colorado at Boulder, the University of California and the Goddard Space Flight Center built the instruments for MAVEN.