American Space Preeminence: Fwd: MAVEN's first look at Mars holds surprises

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: October 15, 2014 9:06:40 AM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: MAVEN's first look at Mars holds surprises

14-Oct-2014
MAVEN's first look at Mars holds surprises, says CU-Boulder mission leader
NASA's MAVEN spacecraft has provided scientists their first look at a storm of energetic solar particles at Mars and produced unprecedented ultraviolet images of the tenuous oxygen, hydrogen and carbon coronas surrounding the Red Planet, said University of Colorado Boulder Professor Bruce Jakosky, the mission's principal investigator.
NASA
Contact: Bruce Jakosky
bruce.jakosky@colorado.edu
303-492-8004
University of Colorado at Boulder

MAVEN captures solar storm hitting Mars, prepares for comet flyby
These images taken by MAVEN's Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph show views of three elements escaping Mars' atmosphere: carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. The red circle indicates the boundaries of Mars. (University of Colorado / NASA)

By Amina Khan contact the reporter

Atmosphere-tasting MAVEN spacecraft gets a lot of action in its first few weeks around Mars
NASA's MAVEN mission has sent back its first look at a solar storm that hit the Martian atmosphere last month, delivering detailed images of the halos of hydrogen, oxygen and carbon surrounding the Red Planet and even mapping the ozone lying beneath these high atmospheric layers. And, technically, it hasn't even started its science phase yet.
"Just this morning my administrative assistant told me that for the first time in months she's hearing me whistling again as I walk down the corridor," MAVEN principal investigator Bruce Jakosky, a planetary scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, said at a briefing. "This is going to really be an exciting mission."
The spacecraft is still in its six-week commissioning phase while it checks its systems and adjusts its orbit. But the early findings are a promising start for the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution spacecraft, which entered orbit around the Red Planet on Sept. 21.
The mission – NASA's first dedicated to studying the upper Martian atmosphere – will help answer some deceptively straightforward questions: If Mars once had an Earthlike atmosphere, how long did it last, and where did it all go?
Though Mars today is a dry planet with a thin atmosphere that's roughly one-hundredth as thick as Earth's, planetary scientists think the planet once had a thick protective layer of air that allowed water to remain liquid on the surface. An abundance of carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas, would have helped to keep the atmosphere warm.
Liquid water is a key ingredient for life as we know it, and how long this protective atmosphere lasted on Mars could tell scientists how likely it is that microbial life ever emerged.
The three elements that make up water and carbon dioxide — hydrogen, oxygen and carbon — are of prime interest to the scientific team, and they break down and rise into the atmosphere over time. That's why, soon after entering orbit and while it hovered around its highest point over Mars, the spacecraft used an ultraviolet spectrograph to take images of each of these elements escaping the planet. Hydrogen, which is the lightest element, rises most easily, and forms an enormous envelope around the planet that extends deep into space. Carbon and oxygen, slightly heavier elements, hug the planet's outlines a little more closely.
The researchers also tracked the impact of a coronal mass ejection that the sun unleashed Sept. 26 and that hit Mars three days later. Solar particles and radiation probably played a major role in making that highest layer of atmosphere disappear, and MAVEN has a suite of instruments designed to measure these present-day interactions.
This prequel to MAVEN's main science mission isn't over – comet Siding Spring is set to fly by Mars on Sunday, and the particles it sheds could potentially interact with the upper atmosphere in fascinating ways. But how interesting the event is depends on how active the comet is, said Justin Deighan of the University of Colorado, Boulder, a member of MAVEN's remote sensing team.
"Comets and cats have a lot in common – they both have tails and they do whatever they like," said Deighan, paraphrasing Canadian comet-hunter David H. Levy. "So we can't guarantee what kind of an impact you're going to see this weekend. But if it's cool, we'll be making images like this to try to show what happened."

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times

October 14, 2014
NASA Mission Provides Its First Look at Martian Upper Atmosphere

Three views of an escaping atmosphere, obtained by MAVEN's Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph, are shown here. Image Credit: NASA/Univ. of Colorado
› Full image and caption

NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft has provided scientists their first look at a storm of energetic solar particles at Mars, produced unprecedented ultraviolet images of the tenuous oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon coronas surrounding the Red Planet, and yielded a comprehensive map of highly variable ozone in the atmosphere underlying the coronas.
The spacecraft, which entered Mars' orbit Sept. 21, now is lowering its orbit and testing its instruments. MAVEN was launched to Mars in November 2013, to help solve the mystery of how the Red Planet lost most of its atmosphere.
"All the instruments are showing data quality that is better than anticipated at this early stage of the mission," said Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator at the University of Colorado, Boulder. "All instruments have now been turned on -- although not yet fully checked out -- and are functioning nominally. It's turning out to be an easy and straightforward spacecraft to fly, at least so far. It really looks as if we're headed for an exciting science mission."
Solar energetic particles (SEPs) are streams of high-speed particles blasted from the sun during explosive solar activity like flares or coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Around Earth, SEP storms can damage the sensitive electronics on satellites. At Mars, they are thought to be one possible mechanism for driving atmospheric loss.
A solar flare on Sept. 26 produced a CME that was observed by NASA satellites on both sides of the sun. Computer models of the CME propagation predicted the disturbance and the accompanying SEPs would reach Mars on Sept. 29. MAVEN's Solar Energetic Particle instrument was able to observe the onset of the event that day.
"After traveling through interplanetary space, these energetic particles of mostly protons deposit their energy in the upper atmosphere of Mars," said SEP instrument lead Davin Larson of the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. "A SEP event like this typically occurs every couple weeks. Once all the instruments are turned on, we expect to also be able to track the response of the upper atmosphere to them."
The hydrogen and oxygen coronas of Mars are the tenuous outer fringe of the planet's upper atmosphere, where the edge of the atmosphere meets space. In this region, atoms that were once a part of carbon dioxide or water molecules near the surface can escape to space. These molecules control the climate, so following them allows us to understand the history of Mars over the last four billion years and to track the change from a warm and wet climate to the cold, dry climate we see today. MAVEN observed the edges of the Martian atmosphere using the Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph (IUVS), which is sensitive to the sunlight reflected by these atoms.
"With these observations, MAVEN's IUVS has obtained the most complete picture of the extended Martian upper atmosphere ever made," said MAVEN remote sensing team member Mike Chaffin of the University of Colorado, Boulder. "By measuring the extended upper atmosphere of the planet, MAVEN directly probes how these atoms escape to space. The observations support our current understanding that the upper atmosphere of Mars, when compared to Venus and Earth, is only tenuously bound by the Red Planet's weak gravity."
IUVS also created a map of the atmospheric ozone on Mars by detecting the absorption of ultraviolet sunlight by the molecule.
"With these maps we have the kind of complete and simultaneous coverage of Mars that is usually only possible for Earth," said MAVEN remote sensing team member Justin Deighan of the University of Colorado, Boulder. "On Earth, ozone destruction by refrigerator CFCs is the cause of the polar ozone hole. On Mars, ozone is just as easily destroyed by the byproducts of water vapor breakdown by ultraviolet sunlight. Tracking the ozone lets us track the photochemical processes taking place in the Martian atmosphere. We'll be exploring this in more complete detail during MAVEN's primary science mission."
There will be about two weeks of additional instrument calibration and testing before MAVEN starts its primary science mission. This includes an end-to-end test to transmit data between NASA's Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars and Earth using the MAVEN mission's Electra telecommunications relay. The mission aims to start full science gathering in early to mid-November.
MAVEN's principal investigator is based at the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. The university provided two science instruments and leads science operations, as well as education and public outreach, for the mission. The University of California at Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory also provided four science instruments for the mission. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the MAVEN project and provided two science instruments for the mission. Lockheed Martin built the spacecraft and is responsible for mission operations. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, provides navigation and Deep Space Network support, as well as the Electra telecommunications relay hardware and operations.
For more about MAVEN, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/maven

Media Contact
Nancy Jones / Bill Steigerwald
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
301-286-0039 / 301-286-5017
nancy.n.jones@nasa.gov / william.a.steigerwald@nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
818-354-6278
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

2014-351

New NASA Mars Probe Beams Home 'Tantalizing' 1st Results
By Miriam Kramer, Staff Writer | October 14, 2014 05:33pm ET

MAVEN spacecraft orbits Mars in this artist's illustration. Image released Oct. 14, 2014.
Credit: University of Colorado/NASA View full size image
A NASA Mars orbiter has been busy since it arrived at the Red Planet late last month.
NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN mission (MAVEN for short) is designed to probe Mars' thin atmosphere, to help scientists understand what caused the planet to change from a warm, wet world long ago to the cold and dry one it is today. The spacecraft entered into orbit around Mars on Sept. 21, and it has already beamed back some amazing new data about Mars' upper atmosphere, researchers said.
In MAVEN's first few weeks of instrument testing at the Red Planet, scientists have already created some of the most complete maps of atomic hydrogen, oxygen, carbon and ozone in the Martian atmosphere ever made. One of MAVEN's instruments even collected data as energetic particles blasted out by a massive solar eruption made it to Mars. [See amazing MAVEN images]
MAVEN is still in the "commissioning phase" of its mission, meaning that the probe hasn't started collecting science full-time. The new data were gathered as the spacecraft's ground controllers began turning on its instruments after it arrived at Mars.
This graph shows atomic hydrogen scattering ultraviolet sunlight in the upper atmosphere of Mars, with data obtained by MAVEN's Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph.
Credit: University of Colorado; NASA
View full size image
"What we're seeing so far is really just a tantalizing teaser of what's to come," MAVEN principal investigator Bruce Jakosky, of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder, said during a NASA news conference today (Oct. 14).
This image shows atomic carbon scattering ultraviolet sunlight in the upper atmosphere of Mars, as observed by MAVEN's Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph. A red circle indicates Mars. Sunlight illuminates the planet from the right.
Credit: University of Colorado; NASA
View full size image
Scientists working with MAVEN weren't able to see exactly how the solar energetic particles (SEPs) affected Mars' atmosphere on Sept. 29 because the instruments necessary for that kind of observation weren't functioning in tandem at that time. MAVEN researchers expect, however, that the spacecraft's instruments will be ready to observe the atmosphere during the next Mars-directed solar event.
This image shows atomic oxygen scattering ultraviolet sunlight in the upper atmosphere of Mars, as observed by MAVEN's Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph. Most oxygen appears trapped near the planet, marked by the red circle.
Credit: University of Colorado; NASA
View full size image
"After traveling through interplanetary space, these energetic particles of mostly protons deposit their energy in the upper atmosphere of Mars," SEP instrument lead Davin Larson, of the University of California, Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory, said in a statement. "An SEP event like this typically occurs every couple weeks. Once all the instruments are turned on, we expect to also be able to track the response of the upper atmosphere to them."
Scientists think that solar weather events could be partially responsible for the loss of the Martian atmosphere over time.
Ground controllers are now moving MAVEN into its lower, science orbit in order to take more observations of the planet's upper atmosphere and find out how some of it might be escaping into outer space. The probe should begin its primary science mission in about two weeks, NASA officials said.
The $671 million MAVEN mission is also gearing up to watch a comet make a close flyby of the Red Planet on Oct. 19.
Comet Siding Spring is set to give Mars a close shave when it flies 87,000 miles (140,000 kilometers) by the planet. NASA's fleet of spacecraft on and around Mars are planning to make observations of the comet's flyby. MAVEN should be able to see how the comet's flyby might affect the Martian atmosphere, researchers have said.

Copyright © 2014 TechMediaNetwork.com All rights reserved.