Successfully Launched new NASA spacecraft to Mars - The País.com (Spain)

Maven spacecraft, of NASA, designed to go into orbit of Mars and investigate its upper atmosphere, has been successfully launched from the base of the U.S. Air Force at Cape Canaveral (Florida ) on an Atlas V. The takeoff was made at 19.28 (GMT). The Maven , (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolultion), after a journey of 10 months, will reach Mars in September next year and will join the flotilla of artifacts that are working there, but this is the first probe with the specific mission to study the atmosphere and its evolution, the U.S. space agency said. Currently operating in Mars orbit Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter , the Mars Odyssey , both of NASA, and Mars Express , of the Agency European Space Agency (ESA). On the ground, the robot work Opportunity and Curiosity . Bound to Mars India launched on 5 November, the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), q ue orbit is still pending completion checks before undertaking the trip.

is expected that the new building work at least a year circling the red planet as close as 150 miles above the surface in its elliptical orbit, to take direct data on the composition of the gas. Furthermore, descend in some mission phases up to 125 kilometers above the Earth. A maximum orbital distance, about 6,000 miles above the planet’s surface, you can capture images in ultraviolet around Mars. “The combination of detailed measurements and global images is a powerful approach to understanding the properties of the upper atmosphere,” NASA said. “The Maven will take data in every region of space near Mars that enable scientists to characterize the state of the upper atmosphere and ionosphere, determine current rates of loss of gas into space and explore the past performance to determine the total loss of atmosphere that has occurred in the history of the planet, “he continues. The mission cost amounts to 500 million euros.

Although observations of Maven could help scientists better understand the past and present habitability of Mars, the mission will not make an active search for signs of life. In fact, the probe is equipped with a sensor of methane, a gas that could be a good indicator of life (about 90% of the methane in Earth’s atmosphere is produced by living organisms). With the project budget could not afford scientists incorporate a methane detector, as explained themselves, reports Space.com.

Several universities have developed scientific instruments on board or have worked on them, as the energetic particle detector, ion analyzers and solar wind electrons, the unit responsible for determining the gas composition and the magnetometer. The Maven has a mass of 903 kilos (2,550 with fuel at launch) and measures 11.4 meters with solar panels deployed. The project involves the Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA, and the mission’s principal investigator is Bruce Jakosky, University of Colorado.