determine how and when Mars lost
its atmosphere and water.
The MAVEN probe carries nine
sensors in three instrument suites.
The Particles and Fields Package,
provided by the University of
California at Berkeley with support
from
CU/LASP
and
NASA’s
Goddard Space Flight Center
in Greenbelt, Md., contains six
instruments to characterize the solar
wind and the ionosphere of Mars.
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, built by Goddard,
will measure the composition of
Mars’ upper atmosphere.
“We need to
know everythng
we can before
we send people
to Mars.”
- Dr. Jim Green
“We need to know everything we
can before we can send people to
Mars,” said Dr. Jim Green, NASA’s
Director of Planetary Science at
NASA HQ in Washington, DC.
“MAVEN is a key step along the
way. And the team did it under
budget!” Green elaborated. “It is
so exciting!”
Over the course of its one-Earthyear primary mission, MAVEN will
observe all of Mars’ latitudes at
altitudes ranging from 93 miles to
more than 3,800 miles. Five deep
dip maneuvers will be executed
during the first year, descending to
an altitude of 78 miles. This marks
the lower boundary of the planet’s
upper atmosphere.
NASA’s MAVEN orbiter and
India’s MOM (Mars Orbiter Mission)
will “work together” to help solve
the mysteries of Mars atmosphere,
Jakosky told me.
www.RocketSTEM.org
India’s first Mars probe joins
MAVEN in race to Red Planet
By Ken Kremer
India’s first ever Mars probe
‘MOM’ successfully fired its main
engine on Dec. 1, blasting the craft
free of the Earth’s sphere of influence forever to begin her nearly
yearlong momentous voyage to
the Red Planet.
Indian space engineers initiated
the 440 Newton liquid fueled engine firing precisely as planned during a critical nail-biting burn lasting
some 22 minutes.
The Trans Mars Insertion (TMI) firing propelled India’s Mars Orbiter
Mission (MOM) away from Earth
forever and placed the spacecraft
on course for a rendezvous with the
Red Planet on September 24, 2014
– where it will study the atmosphere
and sniff for signals of methane.
The Mars insertion burn imparted
the vehicle with an incremental velocity of 647.96 meters per second
(m/sec) consuming 198 kg of fuel.
The maneuver dubbed ‘The
mother of all slingshots’, enabled
MOM to finally achieve escape
velocity and catapulted the 1,350
kilogram (2,980 pound) spacecraft
on an historic flight streaking towards Mars.
And in a rare but rather delightful coincidence, MOM is not alone
on her remarkable Martian sojourn.
Following the triumphant engine
burn, she now joins NASA’s MAVEN
orbiter in a gallant marathon race
to the Red Planet.
MOM was designed and developed by the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) at a
cost of $69 Million and marks India’s
inaugural foray into interplanetary
flight. MOM is nicknamed ‘Mangalyaan’ – which in Hindi means
‘Mars craft.’
MOM’s journey began with a
picture perfect Nov. 5 liftoff atop India’s highly reliable four stage Polar
Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C25
from ISRO’s Satish Dhawan Space
Centre SHAR, Sriharikota.
A picture perfect liftoff of the PSLV-C25
rocket carrying India’s first interplanetary
Photo: ISRO
mission.
The MOM spacecraft is now traveling on 300 day long interplanetary voyage of more than 700 million kilometers (400 million miles) to
the Red Planet.
Along the path to Mars, ISRO
plans to conduct a series of Trajectory Correction Maneuvers (TCMs)
using MOM’s Attitude and Orbit
Control System (AOCS) thrusters
to precisely navigate the probe to
the point required to achieve orbit
around the Red Planet.
Following the ten month cruise
through space the orbital insertion
engine will fire for a do or die burn
on September 24, 2014 placing
MOM into an 377 km x 80,000 km
elliptical orbit around Mars.
MOM will reach Mars vicinity just
two days after MAVEN’s arrival on
Sept. 22, 2014.
If all continues to goes well, India
will join an elite club of only four
who have launched probes that
successfully investigated the Red
Planet from up close – following the
Soviet Union, the United States and
the European Space Agency.
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