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Nasa's Maven spacecraft arrives in Mars orbit after 442m-mile journey

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Scientists hope Maven will find clues to the planet’s early history, including the possibility of harboring life

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Nasa’s Maven spacecraft arrived in orbit around Mars late on Sunday night US east coast time after a 442m-mile (700m-kilometre) journey that began nearly a year ago.


The robotic explorer fired its brakes and successfully slipped into orbit around the red planet, officials confirmed.

“This is such an incredible night,” said John Grunsfeld, Nasa’s chief for science missions.
Now the real work begins for the mission, which has cost almost $700m (£430m).

Flight controllers will spend the next six weeks adjusting Maven’s altitude and checking its science instruments. Then Maven will start probing the Martian upper atmosphere. The spacecraft is not meant to land on the planet.

Scientists believe the Martian atmosphere holds clues as to how Earth’s neighbour went from being warm and wet billions of years ago to cold and dry. That early moist world may have harboured microbial life, a tantalising question yet to be answered.

Nasa launched Maven last November from Cape Canaveral, the 10th US mission sent to orbit the red planet. Three earlier ones failed, and until the official word came of success late on Sunday night, the entire team was on edge.

“I don’t have any fingernails any more, but we’ve made it,” said Colleen Hartman, deputy director for science at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “It’s incredible.”

The spacecraft was clocking more than 10,000mph (16,000kph) when it hit the brakes for the so-called orbital insertion, a half-hour process. The world had to wait 12 minutes to learn the outcome, once it occurred, because of the lag in spacecraft signals given the 138m miles between the two planets on Sunday.

“Based on observed navigation data, congratulations, Maven is now in Mars orbit,” came the official announcement. Flight controllers applauded the news and shook hands; laughter filled the previously tense-filled room.

Maven joins three spacecraft already circling Mars, two American and one European. And the traffic jam isn’t over: India’s first interplanetary probe, Mangalyaan, will reach Mars in two days and also aim for orbit.

This is Nasa’s 21st shot at Mars and the first since the Curiosity rover landed on the red planet in 2012. Just this month, Curiosity arrived at its prime science target, a mountain named Sharp, ripe for drilling. The Opportunity rover is also still active a decade after landing.

All these robotic scouts are paving the way for the human explorers Nasa hopes to send in the 2030s.
source - theguardian
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