MAVEN (Mars Scout 2)

MAVEN [Lockheed Martin]

MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) ia a $485 million mission scheduled for launch in late 2013. The selection was evaluated to have the best science value and lowest implementation risk from 20 mission investigation proposals submitted in response to a NASA Announcement of Opportunity in August 2006.

Mars once had a denser atmosphere that supported the presence of liquid water on the surface. As part of a dramatic climate change, most of the Martian atmosphere was lost. MAVEN will make definitive scientific measurements of present-day atmospheric loss that will offer clues about the planet's history.

The principal investigator for the mission is Bruce Jakosky of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The university will receive $6 million to fund mission planning and technology development during the next year. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., will manage the project. Lockheed Martin of Littleton, Colo., will build the spacecraft based on designs from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and 2001 Mars Odyssey missions. The team will begin mission design and implementation in the fall of 2009.

After arriving at Mars in the fall of 2014, MAVEN will use its propulsion system to enter an elliptical orbit ranging 90 to 3,870 miles above the planet. The spacecraft's eight science instruments will take measurements during a full Earth year, which is roughly equivalent to half of a Martian year. MAVEN also will dip to an altitude 80 miles above the planet to sample Mars' entire upper atmosphere. During and after its primary science mission, the spacecraft may be used to provide communications relay support for robotic missions on the Martian surface.

The instrument suites will include:

• Solar Wind Electron Analyzer (SWEA) - Measures solar wind and ionospheric electrons
• Solar Wind Ion Analyzer (SWIA) - Measures solar wind and magnetosheath ion density and velocity
• Suprathermal and Thermal Ion Composition (STATIC) - Measures thermal ions to moderate-energy escaping ions
• Solar Energetic Particle (SEP) - Determines the impact of Solar Energetic Particles on the upper atmosphere
• Lagmuir Probe and Waves (LPW) - Determines ionospheric properties and wave heating of escaping ions and solar EUV input to atmosphere
• Magnetometer (MAG) - Measures interplanetary solar wind and ionospheric magnetic fields
• Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrometer (IUVS) - Measures global characteristics of the upper atmosphere and ionosphere
• Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer (NGIMS) - Measures the composition and isotopes of thermal neutrals and ions