PASADENA, Calif. - NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft successfully entered Mars' orbit at 7:24 p.m. PDT (10:24 p.m. EDT) Sunday, Sept. 21, where it now will prepare to study the Red Planet's upper atmosphere as never done before. MAVEN is the first spacecraft dedicated to exploring the tenuous upper atmosphere of Mars.
After a 10-month journey, confirmation of successful orbit insertion was received from MAVEN data observed at the Lockheed Martin operations center in Littleton, Colorado, as well as from tracking data monitored at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory navigation facility in Pasadena, California. The telemetry and tracking data were received by NASA's Deep Space Network antenna station in Canberra, Australia.
Following orbit insertion, MAVEN will begin a six-week commissioning phase that includes maneuvering into its final science orbit and testing the instruments and science-mapping commands. MAVEN then will begin its one Earth-year primary mission, taking measurements of the composition, structure and escape of gases in Mars' upper atmosphere and its interaction with the sun and solar wind.
The primary mission includes five "deep-dip" campaigns, in which MAVEN's periapsis, or lowest orbit altitude, will be lowered from 93 miles (150 kilometers) to about 77 miles (125 kilometers). These measurements will provide information down to where the upper and lower atmospheres meet, giving scientists a full profile of the upper tier.
The Mars Exploration Program funds NASA's efforts to study Mars. Cost increases and budget pressures have made the continuation of planetary exploration difficult for NASA. The program has made progress with the Curiosity rover, currently on Mars, and the MAVEN, en route to the red planet.
However, future plans have been put into question. Even NASA's plan to cooperate with Europe on missions to Mars has proven too ambitious. NASA is now attempting to develop more modest missions in the future. With MAVEN successfully launched, NASA plans to send a Discovery mission, called InSight, to Mars in 2016 and a rover to the Red Planet in 2020.
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