NASA MAVEN Mars Probe Beams Home First Results

MAVEN spacecraft orbits Mars in this artist's illustration. Image released Oct. 14, 2014. 

Credit: University of Colorado/NASA

NASA's MAVEN Mars orbiter has been busy since it arrived at the Red Planet late last month.

NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN mission (MAVEN) is designed to probe Mars' thin atmosphere, to help scientists understand what caused the planet to change from a warm, wet world long ago to the cold and dry one it is today. 

The spacecraft entered into orbit around Mars on Sept. 21, and it has already beamed back some amazing new data about Mars' upper atmosphere, researchers said.

In MAVEN's first few weeks of instrument testing at the Red Planet, scientists have already created some of the most complete maps of atomic hydrogen, oxygen, carbon and ozone in the Martian atmosphere ever made. 

One of MAVEN's instruments even collected data as energetic particles blasted out by a massive solar eruption made it to Mars. 


MAVEN is still in the "commissioning phase" of its mission, meaning that the probe hasn't started collecting science full-time. 

The new data were gathered as the spacecraft's ground controllers began turning on its instruments after it arrived at Mars.

This graph shows atomic hydrogen scattering ultraviolet sunlight in the upper atmosphere of Mars, with data obtained by MAVEN’s Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph. 

Credit: University of Colorado, NASA


Scientists working with MAVEN weren't able to see exactly how the solar energetic particles (SEPs) affected Mars' atmosphere on Sept. 29 because the instruments necessary for that kind of observation weren't functioning in tandem at that time. 

MAVEN researchers expect, however, that the spacecraft's instruments will be ready to observe the atmosphere during the next Mars-directed solar event.

"After traveling through interplanetary space, these energetic particles of mostly protons deposit their energy in the upper atmosphere of Mars," SEP instrument lead Davin Larson, of the University of California, Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory, said in a statement. 

"An SEP event like this typically occurs every couple weeks. Once all the instruments are turned on, we expect to also be able to track the response of the upper atmosphere to them."

This image shows atomic carbon scattering ultraviolet sunlight in the upper atmosphere of Mars, as observed by MAVEN’s Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph. A red circle indicates Mars. Sunlight illuminates the planet from the right.

Credit: University of Colorado; NASA

This image shows atomic oxygen scattering ultraviolet sunlight in the upper atmosphere of Mars, as observed by MAVEN’s Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph. 

Most oxygen appears trapped near the planet, marked by the red circle.

Credit: University of Colorado; NASA

NASA Astronaut Steve Swanson Beams First Instagram Photo from Space

This Instagram image from the International Space Station was posted on April 9 with the caption: "Blood, sweat, but hopefully no tears."

Credit: International Space Station consortium

An astronaut on the International Space Station recently made a giant leap into the social media world with the first Instagram photo beamed down from space.

NASA astronaut Steve Swanson posted a selfie taken in the station's cupola, a large, multi-sided window that faces Earth, as the first Instagram photo sent from space.

The photo posted to the station's Instagram account (ISS) on April 7, and since then, it has garnered nearly 4,000 "likes."

"Back on the ISS, life is good," Swanson wrote in an image caption. The veteran astronaut flew to space before during two previous space shuttle missions.

In the photo, Swanson is wearing a shirt featuring a spaceship from one of his favorite TV shows, "Firefly," a short-lived show about a crew of space cowboys that traverse the universe looking for smuggling work where they can get it.

Swanson brought a box set of "Firefly" DVDs up to the station during one of his previous space shuttle missions.

Soviet Luna 17, Lunokhod Beams Surprising Laser Flashes To Earth

It looks like a creature from science fiction, but Lunokhod 1 is real.

Photo Credit: Lavochkin Association.

Soviet technology was built to last. This was not always a good thing with respect to derelict space craft and near earth debris but in this case it is remarkable.

Luna 17, Lunokhod, a Soviet built robotic lunar rover lost on the dusty plains of the Moon for the past 40 years has been found again, and it is returning surprisingly strong laser pulses to Earth.

"We shined (sic) a laser on Lunokhod 1's position, and we were stunned by the power of the reflection," says Tom Murphy of UC San Diego, who leads the research team that's putting the old robot back to work. "Lunokhod 1 is talking to us loudly and clearly."

Almost forgotten in the lore of the Apollo-era space race, Lunokhod 1 was one of the greatest successes of the old Soviet lunar exploration program. In 1970, Time magazine described the robot's historic landing:

"Three hours after reaching the Moon aboard the latest unmanned Russian Moon probe, Luna 17, Lunokhod I (literally "moonwalker") lumbered down one of two ramps extended by the mother ship and moved forward ... thus taking the first giant step for robotkind on another celestial body."

The remote-controlled rover traveled almost 7 miles during its 11 month lunar tour, relaying thousands of TV images and hundreds of high-resolution panoramas of the Moon back to Earth. It also sampled and analyzed lunar soil at 500 locations.

Then Lunokhod-1 was lost - until last month when NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter found it again.