Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN)

MAVEN NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission, set to launch in 2013, will explore the past climate of Mars, including its potential for harboring life over the ages. The University of Colorado’s (CU-Boulder) Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) is leading the project, and Jefferson County-based Lockheed Martin will design, build, and operate the $485-million spacecraft.

“A better understanding of the upper atmosphere and the loss of volatile compounds like carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and water to space is required to plug a major hole in our understanding of Mars,” stated LASP Associate Director and CU professor Bruce Jakosky, principal investigator on the mission.

The LASP team also will provide science operations, build two of the science instruments, and lead education and public outreach efforts for the MAVEN mission.

Clues on the Martian surface, including features resembling dry riverbeds and minerals that only form in the presence of water, suggest Mars once had a denser atmosphere that supported the presence of liquid water on the surface. Since most of the atmosphere was lost as part of a dramatic climate change, MAVEN will make definitive scientific measurements of present-day atmospheric loss that will offer insight into the Red Planet’s history.

The mission will carry three instrument suites to probe the atmosphere of Mars and its interactions with the sun. The Particles and Fields Package contains six instruments that will characterize the solar wind and the ionosphere of the planet. The Remote Sensing Package will determine global characteristics of the upper atmosphere and ionosphere. The Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer will measure the composition and isotopes of neutral ions. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will navigate the spacecraft.