Print Email Font ResizeCU-Boulder's MAVEN one month from Mars departureProject seen as one of university's most ambitious space venturesBy Charlie Brennan Camera Staff WriterPosted:
A crane lifts NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility on Aug. 3 at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (NASA/Tim Jacobs)
MAVEN countdown Oct. 25: Approximate date that fueling begins Nov. 1: MAVEN is "mated" to the Payload Launch Adapter Nov. 4: MAVEN is encapsulated in its "fairing," or nose cone Nov. 6: The MAVEN payload is secured atop the Atlas 5 rocket Nov. 18: First potential day for launch Dec. 7: End of preferred launch window Dec. 8-23: Could still launch but at great cost to fuel efficiency Sept. 22, 2014: Anticipated insertion into Mars orbit, presuming a Nov. 18 launch Source: Lockheed Martin Space Systems and CU's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space PhysicsAfter nearly a decade of preparation, the countdown is now at one month for MAVEN, one of the most momentous space missions in which the University of Colorado has ever been involved. The launch window raises Nov. 18 and extends through Dec. 7, although mission principal investigator Bruce Jakosky, of a professor at CU's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, said it could depart for Mars as late as Dec. 15 without a significant impact on its activities. Advertisement
CU boasts a long history in space, with 19 of 20 CU-affiliated astronauts having flown in space, and its scientists having placed dozens of payloads on NASA's 135 shuttle missions. But the $670 million MAVEN -- Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution -- is stirring an added level of excitement in the university's science community and beyond. "It's got to be in the top three or top five, something like that," said Bill Possel, LASP's science operations center manager for the MAVEN project, "the fact that CU is in charge of the entire mission." Jakosky, a geological sciences professor, wrote in an email, "MAVEN will be able to tell us about the history of the climate and what caused the changes and it will not tell us whether life actually existed or still might exist on Mars today. "MAVEN is about understanding the history of the habitability of Mars by microbes. But we will not determine whether it actually is inhabited by microbes." He said its significance to the university's space legacy stems from "the fact that we could credibly propose a mission like this, provide two science instruments, do the science operations, all take advantage of this long history and the experience that comes with it," he wrote in an email. "MAVEN is certainly the largest program we've ever led, and the most visible." Scuttled by politics -- but only briefly MAVEN was temporarily but seriously jeopardized by the federal government shutdown, which began Oct. 1. The project was shut down -- all operations put into what scientists call a "safe state" -- but not for long. Jakosky learned Oct. 3 that NASA had given MAVEN an emergency exemption, ruling that other functions it can also perform, such as serving as a data relay station for other Mars-based NASA exploration, made it an essential operation. "There was a lot of nervousness for us," said Guy Beutelschies, program manager for Lockheed Martin Space Systems, which manufactured the spacecraft at its plant in Littleton, and who is now also in Florida preparing for the launch. "This alignment of Earth and Mars, we would have had to wait over two years before they're in position again." Possel said he spent the roughly 48 hours that MAVEN appeared threatened by government gridlock "shaking in my boots." "But I was thrilled to see that we were restarted (Oct. 3)," he said. "At this point, we are looking great for that Nov. 18 launch date." Possel will be on hand for the launch and should have plenty of company. CU has organized a series of events for the roughly 300 alumni, faculty, staff and others who have registered for university-sponsored activities in Florida. Those will start with a reception and talk by Jakosky the evening of Nov. 16, followed by a bus tour at the Kennedy Space Center on Nov. 17. Launch morning will kick off with a lecture called "CU in Space," presented by CU astrophysics professor Erika Ellington, before buses leave for Launch Complex 41 for a liftoff slated between 1:29 and 3:29 p.m. But Buffs-centric space buffs won't have to be in Florida to share in the excitement because a MAVEN launch party is set for the University Memorial Center from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., with activities for visiting K-12 students as well as live-streaming from NASA of MAVEN's departure. MAVEN headed to Martian orbit It will take about 10 months for MAVEN to reach the Martian orbit, where it will be gathering data for at least one year. Its stay there could last longer. "Our primary mission is one Earth year," Jakosky said. "We chose that duration because, in a year of observations, we can collect the data that would allow us to answer the science questions we originally posed. "After that year is over, we hope to continue to be able to collect data. We can use a longer period of data collection to answer a set of augmented science questions." Jakosky sees a "very high science value" in the mission being extended, but NASA has not yet committed to doing so. Collecting the data will be three separate instrument packages. They are the Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer, which can measure different isotope rations; the Imaging Ultra Violet Spectrograph, built in Boulder by LASP; and the Particles and Fields package, which contains six different instruments. One of the six instruments in the Particles and Fields package is known as the Langmuir Probe and Waves, tasked with measuring electron density and temperature, electric fields and extreme ultraviolet observations from the sun. LASP's Laila Andersson is co-investigator on the Langmuir instrument. She points out that the only previous data on electron temperature in the Martian atmosphere came from the Viking 1 and 2 landings in 1976. "Since those two landers, we haven't measured the electron temperature in the atmosphere, and all the atmospheric modeling from Mars is based on those measurements," Andersson said. "It is very tricky to model the electron temperatures; therefore getting more observations is important." Anderrson is one of roughly 150 LASP personnel who have worked on the project -- and will be among the 55 who will be part of the contingent at the Kennedy Space Center for the launch. CU has many MAVEN partners. They include NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, which manages the project and provided two of the science instruments for the mission. The University of California at Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory provided science instruments for the mission. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, at Pasadena, Calif., will provide navigation support, and Centennial-based United Launch Alliance built the Atlas V rocket MAVEN will ride on. Lockheed's Beutelschies, a CU graduate himself and former member of LASP, said Lockheed has been involved on some level with every NASA Mars mission back to the Viking project. "But this is the first mission where the university has been our principal investigator, and so getting to work with CU, that makes it special," Beutelschies said. Asked if there would be any black and gold on board, he joked: "Maybe hidden here and there. Just don't tell anybody." Contact Camera Staff Writer Charlie Brennan at 303-473-1327 or .Print Email Font ResizeReturn to Top RELATED