DAVID MITCHELL/MAVEN Project Manager, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center: Several billion
years ago, Mars was vastly different than it is today. From the evidence taken so far,
it was a very wet environment -- rivers, lakes, perhaps even oceans on the surface of Mars.
A thicker atmosphere.
Mars, as we know it, is a barren planet of extreme temperatures and the thinnest of atmospheres
. . . an environment too hostile to sustain even microbial life.
But has this always been the case?
A variety of spacecraft launched in recent years have examined the Red Planet's landscape
up close and surveyed it from above -- and discovered intriguing signs of an ancient,
watery world.
Now scientists seek to understand what could have caused such a dramatic change . . . on
a planet so near our own. A new NASA mission, called MAVEN, is heading to Mars to investigate.
BRUCE JAKOSKY/MAVEN Principal Investigator, University of Colorado, Boulder: MAVEN is
the first mission that we've sent to Mars that has the primary goal of understanding
the upper atmosphere. And what we're trying to do with MAVEN is to learn how the atmosphere
changed over time, and why. We think that the atmosphere had a lot more water, a lot
more carbon dioxide, early in history, when a lot of the water-related features we see
on the surface were carved. What we're trying to do is to determine where did the water
go? Where did the CO2 go from that early environment?
The nearly three-ton MAVEN spacecraft is designed to look at the Red Planet in a whole new way.
Instead of focusing on the Martian surface, MAVEN will keep its "eyes" trained on the
upper atmosphere.
MAVEN, which stands for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, is fundamentally different
from the Mars missions that have gone before -- rovers such as Curiosity, Opportunity and
Spirit, and orbiters like Mars Odyssey and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
JAKOSKY: When you look at the other spacecraft that have gone to Mars, each one of them has
explored a different piece of the Mars system. With MAVEN, we're exploring the single biggest
unexplored piece of Mars so far.
After a 10-month journey from Cape Canaveral, Florida to Mars, MAVEN will arrive at the
Red Planet on Sept. 22, 2014.
The spacecraft then will slip into Martian orbit, and after another five and a half weeks
of checkout, it will be ready to spend the next Earth year carrying out its assignment.
The Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder leads
the scientific portion of the mission, while NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland
is responsible for the overall mission management.
MAVEN is an eight-foot cube weighing about 5,400 pounds at launch -- as much as a fully
loaded sport utility vehicle. With its twin pairs of gull wing-shaped solar panels fully
extended, it stretches 37 feet from wingtip to wingtip.
MAVEN brings with it eight instruments designed to take a variety of measurements throughout
Martian orbit in every region of "Near-Mars" space. Built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems,
the spacecraft makes the most of every available spot for these scientific sensors.
After a series of tests to prove the spacecraft can handle the rigors of launch and the extremes
of deep space, it was flown to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard an Air Force
C-17 cargo aircraft.
With MAVEN on site at the spaceport, the final preparations for liftoff intensified -- and
excitement continued to build as the milestones were checked off.
GUY BEUTELSCHIES/MAVEN Program Manager/Lockheed Martin Space Systems: It makes it all so real
to see all this right in front of you. So there's a tremendous amount of excitement
not only from the team but our friends and family coming down to watch this launch, it's
kind of the culmination of a lot of years of hard work by the team.
Getting MAVEN safely off the ground and on its path to Mars is the job of NASA's Launch
Services Program, based at Kennedy.
OMAR BAEZ/Launch Director/NASA's Launch Services Program: LSP has been preparing for MAVEN
for about five years, and maybe a little bit longer if you look at the announcement of
opportunities that came up before that. So it's been quite a while. It's coming to maturity
now.
The MAVEN mission only has 20 days to launch before its window of opportunity closes for
about two years. That's because of the periodic alignment of the Earth and Mars.
CHUCK TATRO/Mission Manager/NASA's Launch Services Program: Mars orbits the sun about
half as fast as the Earth does. So that means that every 26 months, the Earth and Mars are
sort of aligned again, so that it takes the least amount of energy for a rocket to deliver
a spacecraft to Mars.
MAVEN's ride to space is the Atlas V rocket, a reliable workhorse with a history of success
for NASA missions -- including the Mars Science Laboratory mission featuring the Curiosity
rover.
While the Atlas V was readied for flight in a hangar at Atlas Space Operations Center,
or ASOC, on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, MAVEN was sent to Kennedy's Payload Hazardous
Servicing Facility for one last round of checkouts, tests, and closeouts.
The processing team did face one significant challenge with less than two months until
liftoff: a 17-day government shutdown that briefly halted prelaunch activities.
BAEZ: It's kind of like a hurricane. We have hurricane plans, but we don't have a government
shutdown plan. So that's a hurdle. We overcame it, we're moving forward, and we're ready
to hit the beginning of the window. Luckily our launch vehicle contractor was not affected
as much by the shutdown and the work continued there, so we're able to press forward. We
were able to get a limited crew in here to be able to work things.
Today, MAVEN is still aiming for the same launch period the team targeted from the start,
and with liftoff right around the corner, everyone is looking forward to seeing this
spacecraft begin its mission of discovery.
MITCHELL: Way back in 2008, we proposed for a launch date of Nov. 18, 2013, and we're
running right to it. It's quite an accomplishment by the team. We're really excited. We're so
close now. I mean, we're headed to Mars.
JAKOSKY: This is all-consuming. I don't know how to do anything except talk about MAVEN
anymore, at least that's what my wife tells me. And to see it come together now, to see
it today, just about ready to go, I'm beside myself.
When launch day arrives, managers and controllers from NASA's Launch Services Program, United
Launch Alliance and the U.S. Air Force, along with the spacecraft team, will report to their
consoles in launch control for the start of the countdown.
By this time, the MAVEN spacecraft is sealed in its protective payload fairing atop the
Atlas V rocket on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral's Complex 41.
TATRO: Everybody has butterflies going into launch day. No matter how much you plan and
how much you practice, there's always things that come up at the last second that make
you nervous. We have a very good team to overcome those, but you never know what's going to
come up and grab your attention and so you have to be ready and able to do that.
JAKOSKY: The launch team, the launch vehicle people, the spacecraft people -- these are
the ultimate professionals who are doing their best to make sure everything works properly,
not only on launch day but for the whole mission. And I've got absolute faith in their ability
to deliver.
A spectacular liftoff might be the most visible milestone on launch day, but a successful
climb to space is only the beginning.
After the Atlas booster and Centaur upper stage have carried MAVEN out of the grasp
of Earth's gravity, another critical element remains. The spacecraft must deploy its solar
arrays and let its caretakers on Earth know that it's healthy and on the right path.
TATRO: When you get a positive confirmation that the spacecraft has successfully separated
from the second stage, and it's on its trajectory and on its way to Mars, that's always very
exciting. All that work that you've done over the past five to seven years pays off.
What will MAVEN discover? What will we learn about our neighboring planet's past -- and
what might this new information teach us about our own planet?
JAKOSKY: I'm just hoping that we'll get there and get the data to answer these questions
about where did the water and the CO2 go. I don't really have a prediction or an expectation
of what the answer's going to be. I'm just hoping we can get that answer.
MITCHELL: The thing about exploration is, sometimes you don't know what you're going
to find until you get there, and so we're going to be exploring this planet, and there's
going to be discoveries I believe that scientists hadn't quite thought of, that are going to
be very compelling to unlocking the secrets of Mars.