If you go
What: Party to view insertion of MAVEN spacecraft into Martian orbit
When: 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Sunday. The orbit insertion is expected to last 34 minutes, beginning at 7:50 p.m.
Where: LASP Space Technology Building, CU-Boulder East Campus, 1234 Innovation Drive
Cost: Free, open to the public, but seating is limited.
More info: lasp.colorado.edu or nasa.gov/maven
An interplanetary journey of 10 months, covering about 442 million miles through space, is expected to culminate Sunday night in the entry of NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft into Martian orbit.
Providing all goes according to plan, it stands to be one of the proudest moments for the University of Colorado in space research and exploration since then-CU President Arnold Weber launched what was termed the Space Initiative in 1984.
CU is welcoming the public to a viewing party at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics Space Technology Building. There will be a wide audience far beyond Boulder courtesy of NASA TV, as a mission conceived at LASP 10 years ago transitions into its next, critical phase.
No one will be watching more closely than LASP’s Bruce Jakosky, principal investigator on the $637 million mission.
“Absolutely the most likely scenario is that everything will go as planned,” said Jakosky, 58, who will monitor the spacecraft’s insertion into orbit around the Red Planet from Lockheed Martin in Littleton. Lockheed Martin built the spacecraft and is responsible for mission operations.
“We haven’t uncovered any issues or problems that would jeopardize that,” Jakosky said. “But we wouldn’t be doing our job if we didn’t prepare for problems. We could deal with a last-minute discovery that the tracking has been off and do a last-minute emergency maneuver.”
Six main engines will ignite and burn for 33 minutes to slow the craft as it enters an elliptical orbit around Mars.
“If the computer has a hiccup during the (engine) burn, it can autonomously detect that and recover from that; we have a backup computer; and even in the middle of the burn it can switch from the primary computer to the backup and still get us into orbit,” Jakosky said. “We have designed a system that can accommodate a failure most anywhere in the system.”
MAVEN is programmed to enter Martian orbit about 236 miles above its northern pole. It will fly about 90 miles above the planet’s surface at its nearest point, and as far out at 3,900 miles.
‘Something happened to the atmosphere’
The MAVEN project — it stands for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN — has enjoyed a smooth trajectory since its inception. The current $637 million price tag is actually down from the $671 million allocated by NASA, and Jakosky said last week the figure should actually go lower again.
“We’ve still been under-running our budget, even relative to the $637M,” he wrote in an email. “NASA hasn’t formally vetted the reduced number yet, so it’s not official, but our cost will end up being lower than $637M.”
Guy Beutelschies, program manager on MAVEN for Lockheed Martin Space Systems — he earned his undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering at CU in 1986 — explained the purpose of the mission.
“Our primary focus is understanding the upper atmosphere,” said Beutelschies, 50. “We know from other missions that have focused more on the geology that there used to be liquid water on the surface, but the atmosphere is too thin and too dry to support life.
“Something happened to the atmosphere. It had to be thicker, warmer and wetter in the past. Now that atmosphere is gone, and the big question is, what happened? We want to really answer the question; what happened to the atmosphere on Mars?”
On Oct. 19, while it is in its commissioning phase prior to commencement of its one-year mission of gathering data to start in November, it will have a close — in astronomical terms — brush with the Comet Siding Spring, which will pass Mars at a distance of about 132,000 kilometers, which would be like a comet passing about one-third of the distance between Earth and the moon.
“The scientists have told us this is a once-in-a-lifetime event,” Beutelschies said. “For a comet to come this close to a planet, and to have MAVEN there, and especially having instruments on board that can really give us some unique science about the comet and, more importantly, for our mission, to give a better sense of the atmospheric dynamic” is a rare opportunity.
Collecting the atmospheric data will be three separate instrument packages. They are the Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer, which can measure different isotope rations; the Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph, built in Boulder by LASP; and the Particles and Fields package, which contains six different instruments.
Launch and arrival
An estimated 150 LASP personnel have worked on the MAVEN project at some point, including at least 15 to 20 paid graduate students at any one time. Beutelschies said that kind of experience for students is invaluable. He had worked part-time controlling satellites at LASP as a student, himself.
“I think it was absolutely the key to where I am today. It gave me a kind of experience that very few students get in college, hands-on working with a spacecraft. Once I graduated, it was the reason why I got my first job” at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Beutelschies said.
Dave Brain, 41, a co-investigator on MAVEN at LASP, and an assistant professor in astrophysics and planetary sciences at CU, believes the next test of MAVEN will grade out well.
“There are two moments in the life of any spacecraft mission that do give the most apprehension,” Brain said.
“The first is the launch, and the second is arrival at your destination. It has happened in the past that spacecrafts have not successfully arrived at the destination. But despite all of that, I still remain confident because this team has really handled problems well, and I think they’re ready.”
Contact Camera Staff Writer Charlie Brennan at 303-473-1327 or brennanc@dailycamera.com.
