After entering its science phase on Nov. 16, NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission is now receiving its first set of information that could help explain how the atmosphere on Mars ended up the way it is today.
Revealing a process in which solar wind penetrates deeply into the Red Planet's atmosphere, MAVEN's observations include comprehensive measures of what makes up the upper atmosphere of Mars and its electricity-charged ionosphere. The first set of findings also offers an unexpected image of ions gaining energy, which allows them to escape the planet's atmosphere.
"We are beginning to see the links in a chain that begins with solar-driven processes acting on gas in the upper atmosphere and leads to atmospheric loss," said Bruce Jakosky, principal investigator for MAVEN.
Jakosky added that over the one-year duration of the MAVEN mission, researchers should be able to paint the complete picture of Mars' atmosphere after gaining a closer understanding of the processes involved and the changes that occurred over time.
Researchers have long assumed that solar wind can only be measured before it hits Mars' ionosphere as its particles are usually deflected. However, the Solar Wind Ion Analyzer on MAVEN detected particles comprising solar wind deep within not just the ionosphere but also the planet's upper atmosphere.
The Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer is in charge of exploring the area from which gases appear to be escaping from by analyzing the upper atmosphere's as well as the ionosphere's composition. By doing this, researchers will be able to make sense of the lower and upper atmospheres of Mars to see what is causing the loss of gas. As gases leave, they will be analyzed by the Suprathermal and Thermal Ion Composition instrument on the spacecraft.
The MAVEN spacecraft as well as all instruments used in the mission were fitted with full technical capabilities proposed back in 2007, and this allows the mission to carry out tasks as scheduled. Although it stayed well within the budget it was assigned in 2010, the mission underwent minimal changes in hardware and science capabilities. MAVEN's success is also attributed to the good coordination between NASA's Mars Exploration Program, the Mars Program Office at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Goddard Space Flight Center, and the principal investigator at University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics.
