Orbit of Mars: Nasa celebrates arrival of spacecraft “Maven” – Business Week

success on difficult terrain: U.S. spacecraft swung into orbit around the Red Planet. It should investigate and find out whether life existed there climate change on the Red Planet.

The U.S. Mars probe “Maven” has achieved its goal. The unmanned vehicle swerved a more than 700 million kilometer journey at night to Monday in orbit around the Red Planet one, as the space agency Nasa announced. You should investigate the Martian atmosphere and provide an indication of how the climate has changed there. The Mars expedition was launched in November last year and is the tenth of its kind in the history of the U.S. space industry. Three previous flights had failed. According tense was the atmosphere in the Control Center in Greenbelt in the state of Maryland, as the approximately 521 million euro expensive probe automatically fired its braking rockets at a speed of 16,000 kilometers per hour.

The fact that everything had gone smoothly, knew NASA specialists only twelve minutes after the end of the maneuver. How long does the radio signal from Mars to its neighbor Planet Earth. “Congratulations -” Maven “is in the Mars orbit,” NASA announced finally. “I have no more fingernails, but we did it,” said Deputy Science Director Colleen Hartman. “It’s unbelievable.” The next six weeks will spend Nasa technician so, adjust the altitude of the probe of the size of a school bus and to examine their instruments. Then shall collect at least one year at a height from 125 to 150 kilometers above the Martian surface and forward data to Earth “Maven”. A landing is not provided.

scientists believe that the climate on the red planet millions of years ago was warm and humid and that it could have then given microbial life on Mars. Whether this was really so, is to “Maven” now to find out. “Maven” stands for “Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution” (about “evolution of the atmosphere and the volatile constituents of Mars”). Today, the protective atmosphere of Mars has virtually dissolved, and the planet is cold and dry. “Maven” -Untersuchungsleiter Bruce Jakosky outcrops hopes about where the water and the carbon dioxide remained who cared once for clouds on Mars. In nearly four weeks of comet Siding Spring is the Mars happen. Its dust tail should also examine the probe. “Maven” is not alone in the Mars orbit. Still circling one European and two U.S. probes to the planet. In two days, the Indian satellite “Mangalyaan” on Mars is expected.