MAVEN MARS ATMOSPHERE AND VOLATILE EVOLUTION

MAVEN, the “Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution” probe, is a NASA orbiter mission designed to study the planet Mars. It is part of NASA's Mars Scout Program.

MAVEN MARS ATMOSPHERE AND VOLATILE EVOLUTION MAVEN’s mission is to explore Mar’s upper atmosphere, ionosphere and its interactions with the sun and solar wind.

MAVEN MARS ATMOSPHERE AND VOLATILE EVOLUTION

The MAVEN mission will be the first mission devoted to understanding the Martian upper atmosphere. It will investigate how the Sun ‘steals’ Martian atmosphere.

MAVEN MARS ATMOSPHERE AND VOLATILE EVOLUTION The Red Planet bleeds. Not blood, but its atmosphere, slowly trickling away to space. The culprit is our sun, which is using its own breath, the solar wind, and its radiation to rob Mars of its air. The crime may have condemned the planet's surface, once apparently promising for life, to a cold and sterile existence.

MAVEN MARS ATMOSPHERE AND VOLATILE EVOLUTION Features on Mars resembling dry riverbeds, and the discovery of minerals that form in the presence of water, indicate that Mars once had a thicker atmosphere and was warm enough for liquid water to flow on the surface.

MAVEN MARS ATMOSPHERE AND VOLATILE EVOLUTION The thick atmosphere of Mars got lost in space. Mars has been cold and dry for billions of years, with an atmosphere so thin, any liquid water on the surface quickly boils away while the sun's ultraviolet radiation scours the ground.

MAVEN MARS ATMOSPHERE AND VOLATILE EVOLUTION Mars lost its global magnetic field in its youth billions of years ago. Once its planet-wide magnetic field disappeared, Mars' atmosphere was exposed to the solar wind and most of it has been gradually stripped away.

MAVEN MARS ATMOSPHERE AND VOLATILE EVOLUTION MAVEN was selected on September 15, Its launch window is November 18 through December 7, It should enter Mars orbit 10 months after launch, in the fall of 2014.

MAVEN MARS ATMOSPHERE AND VOLATILE EVOLUTION MAVEN has a planned nominal lifetime of 2 years. The mission budget is 485 million dollars. It will take ten months for MAVEN to reach the Red Planet.

MAVEN MARS ATMOSPHERE AND VOLATILE EVOLUTION There are four primary science objectives for the MAVEN project. They are:

MAVEN MARS ATMOSPHERE AND VOLATILE EVOLUTION Determine the role that loss of volatiles from the Mars atmosphere to space has played through time. Determine the current state of the upper atmosphere, ionosphere, and interactions with the solar wind.

MAVEN MARS ATMOSPHERE AND VOLATILE EVOLUTION Determine the current rates of escape of neutral elements and ions to space and the processes controlling them. Determine the ratios of stable isotopes in the Martian atmosphere.

MAVEN MARS ATMOSPHERE AND VOLATILE EVOLUTION There are three packages of instruments that will fly on the MAVEN craft. The MAVEN instruments are all closely based on similar instruments that have flown on previous missions. Particles and Field Package (P&F), Remote Sensing Package (RS), and Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer (NGIMS).

MAVEN MARS ATMOSPHERE AND VOLATILE EVOLUTION The P&F Package has six different instruments

MAVEN MARS ATMOSPHERE AND VOLATILE EVOLUTION (P&F) Solar Wind Electron Analyzer (SWEA): Will measure the solar wind and ionospheric electrons.

MAVEN MARS ATMOSPHERE AND VOLATILE EVOLUTION (P&F) Solar Wind Ion Analyzer (SWIA): Will measure solar wind and magneto sheath ion density and velocity.

MAVEN MARS ATMOSPHERE AND VOLATILE EVOLUTION (P&F) Suprathermal and Thermal Ion Composition (STATIC): Will measure the thermal ions to moderate-energy escaping ions.

MAVEN MARS ATMOSPHERE AND VOLATILE EVOLUTION (P&F) Solar Energetic Particle (SEP): Will determine the impact of SEPs on the upper atmosphere.

MAVEN MARS ATMOSPHERE AND VOLATILE EVOLUTION (P&F) Lagmuir Probe and Waves (LPW): Will determine the ionospheric properties and wave heating of escaping ions and solar EUV input to the atmosphere.

MAVEN MARS ATMOSPHERE AND VOLATILE EVOLUTION (P&F) Magnetometer (MAG): Will measure the interplanetary solar wind and ionospheric magnetic fields.

MAVEN MARS ATMOSPHERE AND VOLATILE EVOLUTION The Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrometer (IUVS) is a part of the Remote Sensing (RS) Package and measures global characteristics of the upper atmosphere and ionosphere via remote sensing.

MAVEN MARS ATMOSPHERE AND VOLATILE EVOLUTION The NGIMS will measure the composition and isotopes of thermal neutrals and ions.

MAVEN MARS ATMOSPHERE AND VOLATILE EVOLUTION Scientists will use MAVEN data to determine the role that loss of volatile compounds— such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and water—from the Mars atmosphere to space has played through time, giving insight into the history of Mars atmosphere and climate, liquid water, and planetary habitability.

MAVEN MARS ATMOSPHERE AND VOLATILE EVOLUTION The MAVEN Principal Investigator is Dr. Bruce Jakosky of the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (CU/LASP). The project is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

MAVEN MARS ATMOSPHERE AND VOLATILE EVOLUTION The LASP team will provide science operations, build two of the science instruments, and lead education and public outreach efforts for the MAVEN mission.

MAVEN MARS ATMOSPHERE AND VOLATILE EVOLUTION The upper atmosphere can act as a conduit through which the gases flow as they are lost to space. The loss processes themselves act instantaneously, on daily timescales, on seasonal timescales, and on longer timescales. Thus, it is important to understand the behavior of the upper atmosphere and how it connects to the lower atmosphere and to space.

MAVEN MARS ATMOSPHERE AND VOLATILE EVOLUTION In this context, the MAVEN mission is designed to understand the nature of the upper atmosphere as the conduit through which gases move as they are lost to space and to understand the nature of the processes by which gases are lost at the present.

MAVEN MARS ATMOSPHERE AND VOLATILE EVOLUTION By measuring the response of these to changing solar inputs over the course of the mission, and by measuring key aspects of the atmosphere today, we can extrapolate the loss to billion-year timescales and determine the role that loss to space has played through time.

MAVEN MARS ATMOSPHERE AND VOLATILE EVOLUTION Presented by Tony Owens September 20, 2011 Denver Museum of Nature and Science

MAVEN MARS ATMOSPHERE AND VOLATILE EVOLUTION Websites used in this presentation: and-volatile-evolution--maven-.html and-volatile-evolution--maven-.html pdf pdf