The Going to Mars campaign invites submissions from the public; artwork, messages, and names will be included on a special DVD. The DVD will be adhered to the MAVEN spacecraft and launched into orbit around Mars. (Courtesy Lockheed Martin)

The DVD will be in NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft, which is scheduled for launch in November. The DVD is part of the mission’s Going to Mars Campaign coordinated at the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (CU/LASP).

The DVD will carry every name submitted. The public also is encouraged to submit a message in the form of a three-line poem, or haiku. However, only three haikus will be selected. The deadline for all submissions is July 1. An online public vote to determine the top three messages to be placed on the DVD will begin July 15.

“The Going to Mars campaign offers people worldwide a way to make a personal connection to space, space exploration, and science in general, and share in our excitement about the MAVEN mission,” said Stephanie Renfrow, lead for the MAVEN Education and Public Outreach program at CU/LASP.

Participants who submit their names to the Going to Mars campaign will be able to print a certificate of appreciation to document their involvement with the MAVEN mission.

“This new campaign is a great opportunity to reach the next generation of explorers and excite them about science, technology, engineering and math,” said Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator from CU/LASP. “I look forward to sharing our science with the worldwide community as MAVEN begins to piece together what happened to the Red Planet’s atmosphere.”

MAVEN is the first spacecraft devoted to exploring and understanding the Martian upper atmosphere. The spacecraft will investigate how the loss of Mars’ atmosphere to space determined the history of water on the surface.

“This mission will continue NASA’s rich history of inspiring and engaging the public in spaceflight in ongoing Mars exploration,” said David Mitchell, MAVEN project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

MAVEN’s principal investigator is based at the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. The university will provide science operations, science instruments and lead Education and Public Outreach. Goddard manages the project and provides two of the science instruments for the mission. Lockheed Martin of Littleton, Colo., built the spacecraft and is responsible for mission operations. The University of California at Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory provides science instruments for the mission. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., provides navigation support, the Deep Space Network and the Electra telecommunications relay hardware and operations.

To participate in the Going to Mars campaign, visit: http://lasp.colorado.edu/maven/goingtomars

For more information on MAVEN, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/maven

The Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer (NGIMS) instrument, shown here at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., before its integration onto the MAVEN spacecraft. (Courtesy NASA/GSFC)

Engineers and scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., in collaboration with partners at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Battel Engineering, Scottsdale, Ariz.; and AMU Engineering, Miami, Fla., built the Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer (NGIMS) instrument.

“The NGIMS team is delighted to provide this instrument to the MAVEN mission, which will help reveal the composition and structure of the upper atmosphere of Mars and contribute to our understanding of the long-term changes in the atmosphere of Mars,” said Paul Mahaffy, NGIMS instrument lead from NASA Goddard.

NGIMS is mounted on an articulated payload platform that can be pointed independently from the spacecraft. The instrument will measure the composition of neutral and ionized gases in the upper atmosphere as the spacecraft passes through it on each orbit and will determine the basic properties of the upper atmosphere. NGIMS will work with other MAVEN instruments as the spacecraft dips in and out of the upper atmosphere to study the rate of loss of atmospheric gases.

The data produced by NGIMS can be used to infer atmospheric chemistry. It measures the ratios of several different isotopes that are important for understanding the long-term history of the atmosphere. NGIMS can provide a basis for models of present and past atmospheric loss. Data from the instrument can improve the understanding of the history of Martian climate and if conditions on early Mars may have been conducive for supporting microbial life.

“Now that we have all of the science instruments on the spacecraft, and they each have the full capability that was intended, we can look forward to getting the full science that we have planned,” said Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator from the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. “This promises to be a very exciting mission.”

MAVEN is the first spacecraft devoted to exploring and understanding the Martian upper atmosphere. MAVEN will investigate the role that loss of Mars’ atmosphere to space played in determining the history of water on the surface.

The MAVEN spacecraft will carry two other instrument suites. The Particles and Fields Package was built by the University of California at Berkeley with support from University of Colorado at Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (CU/LASP) and NASA Goddard. It contains six instruments that will characterize the solar wind and the ionosphere of the planet. The Remote Sensing Package, built by CU/LASP, will determine global characteristics of the upper atmosphere and ionosphere.

“The successful delivery and integration of the NGIMS instrument onto the MAVEN spacecraft is a huge milestone for the project,” said David Mitchell, MAVEN project manager from NASA Goddard. “We now have all elements on board as we head into a final series of environmental tests prior to shipping to Cape Canaveral in August, and launch in November.”

MAVEN’s principal investigator is based at the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. The university provides science instruments and leads science operations, and Education and Public Outreach. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center manages the project and provides two of the science instruments for the mission. Lockheed Martin of Littleton, Colo., built the spacecraft and is responsible for mission operations. The University of California at Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory provides science instruments for the mission. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., provides navigation support, the Deep Space Network, and the Electra telecommunications relay hardware and operations.

To read the original NASA press release, please visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/maven/news/ngims-integrated.html

When you navigate with a compass you can orient yourself thanks to Earth’s global magnetic field. But on Mars, if you were to walk around with a compass it would haphazardly point from one anomaly to another, because the Red Planet does not possess a global magnetosphere. Scientists think that this lack of a protective magnetic field may have allowed the solar wind to strip away the Martian atmosphere over billions of years, and now NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft will study this process in detail with its pair of ring core fluxgate magnetometers.
(Credit: NASA/Goddard/Dan Gallagher)

When the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission begins its journey to the Red Planet in 2013, it will carry a sensitive magnetic-field instrument built and tested by a team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Scheduled for launch in late 2013, MAVEN will be the first mission devoted to understanding the Martian upper atmosphere.

The goal of MAVEN is to determine the history of the loss of atmospheric gases to space through time, providing answers about Mars’ climate evolution.

By measuring the current rate of escape to space and gathering enough information about the relevant processes, scientists will be able to infer how the planet’s atmosphere evolved.

The trip to Mars takes 10 months, and MAVEN will go into orbit around the planet in September 2014.

The Goddard-built MAVEN magnetometer will be a sensitive tool investigating what remains of the Red Planet’s magnetic “shield.” It will play a key role in studying the planet’s atmosphere and interactions with solar wind, helping answer the question of why a planet once thought to have an abundance of liquid water became a frozen desert.

“The MAVEN magnetometer is key to unraveling the nature of the interactions between the solar wind and the planet,” said MAVEN principal investigator Bruce Jakosky from University of Colorado at Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (CU/LASP).

The magnetometer will measure the planet’s magnetic field through a series of coils, each containing a magnetic ring wrapped around a metal core. The sensors, known as “flux gates,” are driven in and out of saturation by applied magnetic fields.

If there is no ambient magnetic field, the sensors remain balanced. If there is an ambient field present, the sensors will go into saturation more quickly in one direction than the other. It’s the imbalance that reveals the presence of an ambient field.

“A magnetometer is like an electronic compass,” said Jack Connerney, mission co-investigator at Goddard. “But we measure the strength, as well as the direction, of the magnetic field.”

The importance of studying the planet’s magnetic field is rooted in the theory that Mars lost its global magnetic field billions of years ago, allowing the solar wind to strip the atmosphere and dry out the planet.

Unlike Earth’s global magnetic field, which surrounds the entire planet, Mars only has patches of magnetic field left in its crust. This can create pockets of atmosphere that are protected against solar wind and others that are left vulnerable.

By measuring sections of the planet’s magnetic field, the magnetometer could help scientists create a bigger picture of the planet’s overall atmosphere.

“The magnetometer helps us see where the atmosphere is protected by mini-magnetospheres and where it’s open to solar wind,” Connerney said. “We can study the solar wind impact and how efficient it is at stripping the atmosphere.”

The magnetometer is one of six instruments that make up the Particles and Fields Package, being assembled by team members at the University of California, Berkeley. The magnetometer works with the other instruments from this package to gather data throughout the course of the projected yearlong orbit around the planet.

The spacecraft will go into orbit and pass closely over the planet’s surface and then move further away to study solar wind beyond the planet’s influence.

The magnetometer is a very sensitive instrument, so engineers have to work to ensure the instrument doesn’t accidentally measure the spacecraft’s magnetic field instead of the one the planet produces.

“We have to go to great extremes to be sure that we have minimized any magnetic fields from the spacecraft,” Jakosky said. “We are working hard to build a very ‘magnetically clean’ spacecraft that will meet our needs with regard to the magnetometer.”

The MAVEN principal investigator comes from CU/LASP. The university provides science operations, is building science instruments, and leads education/public outreach. NASA Goddard manages the project and is building two of the science instruments for the mission. Lockheed Martin of Littleton, Colo., is building the spacecraft and is responsible for mission operations. The University of California at Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory is building science instruments for the mission. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., provides navigation support, the Deep Space Network, and the Electra telecommunications relay hardware and operations.

To read the original NASA feature, please visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/maven/news/magnetometer.html.

The Going to Mars campaign invites submissions from the public; artwork, messages, and names will be included on a special DVD. The DVD will be adhered to the MAVEN spacecraft and launched into orbit around Mars. (Courtesy Lockheed Martin)

Using innovative online tools, the Going to Mars campaign will allow members of the general public to participate in the mission and “go to Mars” with the MAVEN spacecraft. The campaign opens today with a student art contest for participants ages five to seventeen; the winning artwork, as chosen by the public via online voting, will fly to Mars.

The second wave of the Going to Mars campaign, which opens in May, invites people from all over the world to input their names and an optional message into an online interface; the names and top-voted messages will be burned to DVD and sent to the Red Planet aboard the MAVEN spacecraft.

Stephanie Renfrow, lead for the MAVEN E/PO program, said, “The Going to Mars campaign is an exciting opportunity for people around the world—across languages and age groups and perspectives—to create a personal connection with the MAVEN mission and share in the thrill of space exploration.”

To participate in the Going to Mars campaign, visit http://lasp.colorado.edu/maven/goingtomars.

NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft undergoes acoustics testing on Feb. 13, 2013 at Lockheed Martin Space Systems’ Reverberant Acoustic Laboratory. The environmental test simulates the maximum sound and vibration levels the spacecraft will experience during launch. MAVEN is the next mission to Mars and will be the first mission devoted to understanding the Martian upper atmosphere. (Courtesy Lockheed Martin)

The Solar Wind Electron Analyzer (SWEA) was the last of the six instruments to be delivered, and was integrated late last week at Lockheed Martin in Littleton, Colo. SWEA measures the properties of electrons at Mars, one electron at a time, and can process up to one million events per second.

The other instruments in the package had been delivered earlier.  In addition to the SWEA instrument, the package includes the Solar Wind Ion Analyzer (SWIA), Suprathermal and Thermal Ion Composition (STATIC), Solar Energetic Particle (SEP), Langmuir Probe and Waves (LPW), Magnetometer (MAG), and a data-processing unit.

“The Particles and Fields Package is designed to study the solar wind interaction with Mars and the structure and dynamics of Mars’ ionosphere, including the influence of Mars’ strongly magnetized crust,” said David L. Mitchell, SWEA instrument lead and coordinator for the full package, from the University of California, Berkeley/Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL). “The package measures solar ultraviolet flux, solar wind properties, and energetic particles produced in solar storms to help us understand how the Sun influences the upper atmosphere and drives atmospheric escape.”

The package was built by the University of California, Berkeley/Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL) with support from the University of Colorado Boulder/Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (CU/LASP) and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

“The final components of the science payload are coming together, so we’re getting closer to being ready for launch,” said Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator from CU/LASP. “I look forward to the exciting and diverse science results that the Particles and Fields Package instruments will provide.”

The MAVEN spacecraft will carry two other instrument suites. The Remote Sensing Package, built by CU/LASP, will determine global characteristics of the upper atmosphere and ionosphere. The Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer, provided by NASA Goddard, will measure the composition and isotopes of neutral ions.

“We’re in the home stretch now of completing the assembly and test of the spacecraft.  With the full complement of Particles and Fields Package instruments now onboard the spacecraft, we are in a very good position for delivering the spacecraft to the launch site on schedule in August”, said David F. Mitchell, MAVEN project manager from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

MAVEN is scheduled for launch in November, 2013. It is the first spacecraft devoted to exploring and better understanding the Martian upper atmosphere. MAVEN will investigate the role that loss of Mars’ atmosphere to space played in determining the history of water on the surface.

MAVEN’s principal investigator is based at the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. The university provides science instruments and leads science operations, and Education and Public Outreach. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center manages the project and provides two of the science instruments for the mission. Lockheed Martin of Littleton, Colo., built the spacecraft and is responsible for mission operations. The University of California at Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory provides science instruments for the mission. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., provides navigation support, the Deep Space Network, and the Electra telecommunications relay hardware and operations.

To read the original NASA press release, please visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/maven/news/pfp-integrated.html

NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft recently completed assembly and has started environmental testing. In the Multipurpose Test Facility clean room at Lockheed Martin, technicians installed the orbiter’s two solar arrays prior to a modal test. (Courtesy Lockheed Martin)

NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft is assembled and is undergoing environmental testing at Lockheed Martin Space Systems facilities, near Denver, Colo. MAVEN is the next mission to Mars and will be the first mission devoted to understanding the Martian upper atmosphere.

During the environmental testing phase, the orbiter will undergo a variety of rigorous tests that simulate the extreme temperatures, vacuum and vibration the spacecraft will experience during the course of its mission. Currently, the spacecraft is in the company’s Reverberant Acoustic Laboratory being prepared to undergo acoustics testing that simulates the maximum sound and vibration levels the spacecraft will experience during launch.

Following the acoustics test, MAVEN will be subjected to a barrage of additional tests, including: separation/deployment shock, vibration, electromagnetic interference/electromagnetic compatibility and magnetics testing. The phase concludes with a thermal vacuum test where the spacecraft and its instruments are exposed to the vacuum and extreme hot and cold temperatures it will face in space.

“The assembly and integration of MAVEN has gone very smoothly and we’re excited to test our work over the next six months,” said Guy Beutelschies, MAVEN program manager at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company. “Environmental testing is a crucial set of activities designed to ensure the spacecraft can operate in the extreme conditions of space.”

“I’m very pleased with how our team has designed and built the spacecraft and science instruments that will make our measurements,” said Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator from CU/LASP. “We’ve got an exciting science mission planned, and the environmental testing now is what will ensure that we are ready for launch and for the mission.”

MAVEN is scheduled to ship from Lockheed Martin’s facility to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in early August where it will undergo final preparations for launch.

MAVEN, scheduled to launch in November 2013, is a robotic exploration mission to understand the role that loss of atmospheric gas to space played in changing the Martian climate through time. It will investigate how much of the Martian atmosphere has been lost over time by measuring the current rate of escape to space and gathering enough information about the relevant processes to extrapolate backward in time.

“This phase of the program is particularly important in that it will provide us with a good assessment of the MAVEN system’s capabilities under the simulated extremes of the space environment,” said David Mitchell, MAVEN project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “Of significance, the spacecraft is entering system level test right on schedule, while maintaining robust cost and schedule reserves to deal with the technical or programmatic surprises that could occur during test or in the run to launch. Tracking on plan is critically important to being ready for launch later this year and the science that MAVEN will deliver one year later.”

MAVEN’s principal investigator is based at the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. The university will provide science operations, science instruments and lead Education/Public Outreach. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center manages the project and provides two of the science instruments for the mission. Lockheed Martin of Littleton, Colo., built the spacecraft and is responsible for mission operations. The University of California at Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory provides science instruments for the mission. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., provides navigation support, the Deep Space Network and the Electra telecommunications relay hardware and operations.

To read the original NASA release, please visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/maven/news/enviro-test.html

To read the related Lockheed Martin release, please visit: http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/news/environmental-testing.html

To listen to a related podcast with Guy Beutelschies and Tim Priser of Lockheed Martin, please visit: http://lasp.colorado.edu/home/maven/MAVEN_LMCO.mp3

A one-day workshop for the Mars science community was held on Dec. 2, 2012 to provide details on the MAVEN mission plan, spacecraft, instruments, observations and sequencing, and anticipated data products and science return. (Courtesy Corby Waste/NASA JPL)

Workshop Agenda

On December 2, 2012, we held a one-day workshop for the Mars science community to discuss the MAVEN mission. We provided details on the mission plan, spacecraft, instruments, observations and sequencing, and anticipated data products and science return. We presented detailed information so that those scientists with an interest in using the data or applying it to models can begin preparing for data return and release, and so that those with an interest in proposing for the planned Participating Scientist program can learn details of what we are planning.

Workshop Presentations

To view each presentation from the MAVEN Science Community Workshop, please click on the appropriate link:

• Introduction and goals of the workshop (B. Jakosky)
• Opportunities for community involvement in MAVEN (E. Talaat)
• MAVEN overview (B. Jakosky)
• Science overview (J. Grebowsky)
• Spacecraft and operations (C. Waters)
• MAVEN spacecraft at Mars orbit animation download – link 1 (11.5 MB WMV) | link 2 (13.3 MB MOV)
• NGIMS (P. Mahaffy, M. Benna, W. Kasprzak)
• IUVS (N. Schneider)
• STATIC (J. McFadden)
• LPW (B. Ergun)
• EUV (P. Chamberlin, T. Woods, F. Eparvier)
• SWEA (D.L. Mitchell)
• SWIA (J. Halekas)
• SEP (D. Larsen)
• MAG (J. Connerney)
• Science closure (R. Lillis)
• Science data management plan (D.L. Mitchell)
• Accelerometer Science (R. Zurek)

Questions concerning the MAVEN Participating Scientist Program may be addressed to Kelly Fast at kelly.e.fast@nasa.gov or (202) 358- 0768.

The Remote Sensing package aboard the MAVEN spacecraft, was conceived, designed and built by the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (CU/LASP) at Boulder. This remote sensing instrument will peer into the ultraviolet to offer clues to how Mars might have lost its atmosphere. (Courtesy Aref Nammari/CU/LASP)

GREENBELT, Md. – A remote sensing instrument that will peer into the ultraviolet to offer clues to how Mars might have lost its atmosphere has arrived at Lockheed Martin for integration into NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft.

“The Remote Sensing package team built a system that meets all technical requirements and delivered it on schedule and on budget,” said David Mitchell, MAVEN project manager from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “I look forward to the instrument’s next level of integration onto the spacecraft and ultimately the science it will provide.”

The Remote Sensing package consists of an Imaging UltraViolet Spectrograph (IUVS) and its control electronics box, the Remote Sensing Data Processing Unit (RSDPU). The Remote Sensing package was conceived, designed and built by the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (CU/LASP) at Boulder, under contract to NASA Goddard.

The Imaging UltraViolet Spectrograph collects the light and spreads it out into spectra and records the spectra using imaging detectors. IUVS is the eyes of the instrument. The Remote Sensing Data Processing Unit is the main electronics box that controls IUVS and communicates with the spacecraft. RSDPU receives and executes the commands sent to tell IUVS when and where to look. RSDPU is the brain of the instrument.

“The IUVS performs ‘remote sensing,’ meaning we can study the planet and its atmosphere at a distance through the light it emits,” said Nick Schneider, IUVS lead scientist from CU/LASP. “Ultraviolet light is especially diagnostic of the state of the atmosphere, so our instrument provides the global context of the whole atmosphere for the local measurements made by the rest of the payload.”

The Remote Sensing package will be turned on for its initial checkout 21 days after launch. Later in the cruise phase of the mission from Earth to Mars, the package will be powered on twice more for state-of-health checks and in-flight calibration.

“With the delivery of this package, we are shifting from assembling the basic spacecraft to focusing on getting the science instruments onto the spacecraft,” said Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator from CU/LASP. “This is a major step toward getting us to launch and then getting the science return from the mission.”

Launching late next year, MAVEN will be the first mission devoted to understanding the Martian upper atmosphere. The goal of MAVEN is to determine the history of the loss of atmospheric gases to space through time, providing answers about Mars climate evolution. By measuring the current rate of escape to space and gathering enough information about the relevant processes, scientists will be able to infer how the planet’s atmosphere evolved in time.

The MAVEN spacecraft will carry two other instrument suites. The Particles and Fields Package, built by the University of California at Berkeley Space Science Laboratory with support from University of Colorado at Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (CU/LASP) and NASA Goddard, contains six instruments that will characterize the solar wind and the ionosphere of the planet. The Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer, provided by NASA Goddard, will measure the composition and isotopes of neutral ions.

“Three of the big milestones in an instrument builder’s life are the day you get selected to fly on a mission, the day you deliver the instrument to the spacecraft to get ready for launch, and the day that it gets where it’s going and data starts flowing back from space,” said Mark Lankton, Remote Sensing package program manager from CU/LASP. “The Remote Sensing team is really happy to have gotten to the second milestone, and we can hardly wait to reach the third.”

MAVEN’s principal investigator is based at CU/LASP. The university will provide science operations, build instruments and lead Education/Public Outreach. NASA Goddard manages the project and is building two of the science instruments for the mission. Lockheed Martin of Littleton, Colo., is building the spacecraft and is responsible for mission operations. The University of California at Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory is building science instruments for the mission. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., provides navigation support, the Deep Space Network and the Electra telecommunications relay hardware and operations.

To read the original NASA release, please visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/maven/news/rsp-ship.html.

“The spacecraft and instruments are all coming together at this point,” said Bruce Jakosky from University of Colorado, the MAVEN principal investigator. “Although we’re focused on getting everything ready for launch right now, we aren’t losing sight of our ultimate objective—getting to Mars and making the science measurements.”

MAVEN will be the first mission devoted to understanding the Martian upper atmosphere. The goal of MAVEN is to determine the role that loss of atmospheric gas to space played in changing the Martian climate through time.

The key decision meeting was held at NASA Headquarters in Washington on Sept. 10 and chaired by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

“I’m incredibly proud of how this team continues to meet every major milestone on schedule on its journey to Mars,” said David Mitchell, MAVEN project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “Being ready for the start of system level integration and test is critically important to ultimately being ready for launch on November 18, 2013.”

KDP-D occurs after the project has completed a series of independent reviews which cover not only technical health of the project but also programmatic health (schedule and cost). KDP-D represents the official transition from Phase C (development stage) to Phase D in the mission life cycle. During Phase D, the spacecraft bus is completed, the science instruments are integrated into the spacecraft, spacecraft testing occurs, everything ships to Kennedy Space Center for integration into the Atlas-V rocket, and the MAVEN mission launches (late next year).

The next major review for the MAVEN team is the Mission Operations Review in November 2012. This review assesses the project’s operational readiness and its progress towards launch. The project will continue to work with its partners to deliver all instruments in the next four months.

The MAVEN spacecraft will carry three instrument suites. The Particles and Fields Package, built by the University of California at Berkeley with some instrument elements from CU/LASP and NASA Goddard, contains six instruments that will characterize the solar wind and the ionosphere of the planet. The Remote Sensing Package, built by CU/LASP, will determine global characteristics of the upper atmosphere and ionosphere. The Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer, provided by NASA Goddard, will measure the composition and isotopes of neutrals and ions.

MAVEN will launch during a 20-day period from November to December, 2013. It will go into orbit around Mars in September 2014, and, after a one-month check-out period, will make measurements from orbit for one Earth year.

MAVEN’s principal investigator is based at the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. The university will provide science operations, build instruments, and lead Education/Public Outreach. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the project and is building two of the science instruments for the mission. Lockheed Martin of Littleton, Colo., will build the spacecraft and perform mission operations. The University of California-Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory is building instruments for the mission. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., provides Program management via the Mars Program Office, as well as navigation support, the Deep Space Network, and the Electra telecommunications relay hardware and operations.

To read the original NASA release, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/maven/news/c-to-d.html

The second of a two-part Spanish-language series features MAVEN Systems Engineer Carlos Gomez-Rosa. The newly released video was produced by the Scientific Visualization Studio at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and is subtitled in English. Gomez-Rosa discusses his work on the ground communication system for the MAVEN mission and his experience at Goddard.

The series aims to make MAVEN more accessible to Spanish-speaking communities and compliments the MAVEN Red Planet: Read, Write, Explore! program, an educational project with a Spanish focus. The video may be particularly useful during Red Planet teacher training workshops, which target English as a Second Language, Spanish as a Second Language, and bilingual educators.

For more information about MAVEN Red Planet, please visit: http://lasp.colorado.edu/home/maven/education-outreach/for-educators/red-planet/.