Nasa Lockheed Martin Maven

Nasa’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft has successfully arrived Martian orbit to study the red planet’s upper atmosphere.

Successful orbit insertion comes after a ten-month space journey of MAVEN, which was launched in November 2013 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

MAVEN complements Nasa’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the 2001 Mars Odyssey in Martian orbit.

Nasa administrator Charles Bolden said: "As the first orbiter dedicated to studying Mars’s upper atmosphere, MAVEN will greatly improve our understanding of the history of the Martian atmosphere, how the climate has changed over time, and how that has influenced the evolution of the surface and the potential habitability of the planet.

"It also will better inform a future mission to send humans to the Red Planet in the 2030s."

Lockheed Martin Space Systems MAVEN spacecraft programme manager Guy Beutelschies said: "The spacecraft and navigation teams have concluded that all major subsystems on the spacecraft are healthy and MAVEN is in orbit around Mars."

"MAVEN will greatly improve our understanding of the history of the Martian atmosphere."

MAVEN will soon begin a six-week commissioning phase, which includes manoeuvring into final science orbit and deploying and testing its instruments.

The spacecraft will then start its one Earth-year primary mission, and evaluate the composition, structure and escape of gases in Mars’s upper atmosphere.

The primary mission includes five ‘deep-dip’ campaigns, when MAVEN’s lowest orbit altitude will be lowered to around 125km from 150km.

Data accumulated from MAVEN will help scientists in evaluating current and past climate conditions on Mars.

MAVEN principal investigator Bruce Jakosky was quoted by BBC as saying: "Previous spacecraft have made measurements and we’ve learned a lot about the upper-atmosphere, but we haven’t been able to put the whole end-to-end picture together."

"I’m hoping Maven will be a mission of discovery, that almost everything we observe will lead us to fundamental new insights about the Mars environment today and how it has evolved over time."

Image: Members of the MAVEN mission team at the Lockheed Martin Mission Support Area in Littleton, Colorado. Photo: courtesy of Lockheed Martin / Nasa.

Defence Technology