Dipping into the Martian Atmosphere

September 10, 2014

Dipping into the Martian Atmosphere

Here is a look at the suite of eight instruments developed by the Maven team to take measurements that may prove the hypothesis that the Sun stripped away the thick ancient atmosphere and with it most of the planet’s water. Credit: LASP/University of Colorado

Solar Wind Electron Analyzer

The Solar Wind Electron Analyzer (SWEA) is designed to measure solar winds and electrons in the Martian ionosphere. It is one of six instruments in the Particles and Fields Package built by the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. Credit: LASP/University of Colorado

Solar Wind Ion Analyzer

The Solar Wind Ion Analyzer (SWIA) will measure solar wind and the density and velocity of ions in the planet’s magnetosheath. It is part of the Particles and Fields Package built by the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. Credit: LASP/University of Colorado

Magnetometer

The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) supplied twin flux-gate magnetometer sensors for the Particles and Fields Package, with one placed at each end of the solar arrays to minimize interference from the spacecraft. Credit: LASP/University of Colorado

Solar Energetic Particle Instrument

The Solar Energetic Particle (SEP) instrument was built at Berkeley to measure the impact of the solar wind on the planet’s upper atmosphere for the Particles and Fields Package. Credit: NASA/SSL

Langmuir Probe and Waves Instrument

The Langmuir Probe and Waves (LPW) instrument supplied by Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics includes an extreme-ultraviolet sensor (inset). The LPW instrument will measure properties of the ionosphere, wave-heating in the upper atmosphere and extreme- ultraviolet inputs into the atmosphere from the Sun. Credit: LASP

Fixed High-Gain Antenna

Controllers will point this high-gain antenna toward Earth for twice-a-week data dumps. Maven does not generate much imagery, so its data-transfer requirements are low. Credit: LASP /University of Colorado

Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph

The Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph (IUVS) was built by the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics to conduct global remote sensing of the upper atmosphere and ionosphere at Mars. It will operate at the high end of Maven’s elliptical orbit. Credit: Aref Nammari/CU/LASP

Suprathermal and Thermal Ion Composition Instrument

The Suprathermal and Thermal Ion Composition (Static) instrument will measure ions in the atmosphere of Mars, including moderate energy-escaping ions, from its perch on the Articulating Payload Platform. It is part of the Particles and Fields Package. Credit: NASA/SSL

Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer

The Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer (Ngims) was built by the Goddard Space Flight Center to measure the composition and isotopes of ions and thermal neutrals in the atmosphere. Credit: NASA/GSFC

The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (Maven) mission will use this Lockheed Martin spacecraft in an attempt to find out where the water went that once ran on Mars. Unlike earlier missions to the red planet, which peered at the surface from orbit or probed it with landers, Maven will study the interactions between the planet’s pink sky and the solar radiation reaching it from above, at times taking a “deep dive” for in-situ data.  

Credit: LASP/University of Colorado