NASA鈥檚 newest orbiter at Mars, MAVEN, took precautions to avoid harm from a dust-spewing comet that flew near Mars yesterday and is studying the flyby鈥檚 effects on the Red Planet鈥檚 atmosphere, according to University of Colorado Boulder Professor Bruce Jakosky, principal investigator on the mission.
The MAVEN, or Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN spacecraft, reported back to Earth in good health after about three hours of precautions against a possible collision with high-velocity dust particles released by comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring. 听鈥淲e鈥檙e glad the spacecraft came through, we鈥檙e excited to complete our observations of how the comet affects Mars, and we鈥檙e eager to get to our primary science phase,鈥� Jakosky said.
MAVEN began orbiting Mars on Sept. 21. The opportunity to study this rare near-collision between a planet and a comet came during the project鈥檚 commissioning phase. A few weeks of instrument calibration and orbit fine-tuning remain before the start of the primary science phase. Led by CU-Boulder, the MAVEN mission will study the upper atmosphere of Mars and its interaction with the solar wind.
Comet Siding Spring hurtled past Mars at about 125,000 mph, coming within about 87,000 miles of the planet. That is equivalent to about one-third of the distance between Earth and Earth鈥檚 moon. The closest approach by the comet鈥檚 nucleus came at about 12:27 p.m. on Oct. 19. The period when dust from the comet was most likely to reach Mars and the orbits of spacecraft around Mars peaked about 100 minutes later.
From about 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. MDT, MAVEN kept in a defensive posture to reduce its profile relative to the direction from which the comet鈥檚 high-velocity dust particles would come. In that 鈥渉unkered down鈥� orientation, its main antenna was not facing the right way for transmitting to Earth, so communications were maintained at a low data rate via a secondary antenna. Also, the mission performed a maneuver on Oct. 2 that set its orbit timing so that the spacecraft was behind Mars, relative to the possible dust flow, from about 12:53 p.m. to 2:23 p.m. MDT.
Downlink of data has begun from MAVEN observations of the comet and Mars鈥� atmosphere. Some observations are designed to provide information about the composition of the gases and dust being released by the comet. Others are investigating possible interaction between material from the comet and the atmosphere of Mars.
Three NASA Mars orbiters, two Mars rovers and other telescopes and instruments on Earth and in space are studying comet Siding Spring. The comet is making its first visit this close to the Sun from the outer solar system鈥檚 Oort Cloud, so the concerted campaign of observations may yield fresh clues to our solar system鈥檚 earliest days more than 4 billion years ago.
Following the comet flyby, operations teams also have confirmed the good health of NASA鈥檚 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and are assessing the status of NASA鈥檚 orbiting Mars Odyssey spacecraft.
In addition to leading NASA鈥檚 MAVEN mission, CU-Boulder provided two science instruments and leads science operations as well as education and public outreach. NASA鈥檚 Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the MAVEN project and provided two science instruments for the mission. Lockheed Martin of Littleton, Colorado built the spacecraft and is responsible for mission operations.
The University of California at Berkeley鈥檚 Space Sciences Laboratory also provided four science instruments for the mission. NASA鈥檚 Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, provides navigation and Deep Space Network support, as well as the Electra telecommunications relay hardware and operations.
For more information on the MAVEN mission visit or .
Contact:
Nancy Jones, Goddard Space Flight Center, 301-286-0039
nancy.n.jones@nasa.gov
Dwayne Brown, NASA Headquarters, 202-358-1726
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov
Guy Webster, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 818-354-6278
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov
Jim Scott, CU-Boulder media relations, 303-492-3114
jim.scott@colorado.edu
