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MAVEN

NASA'due south MAVEN spacecraft is orbiting Mars to study the planet's atmosphere and how information technology interacts with the solar winds. Also high on its list of mission-critical goals is not crashing into things. That one almost went out the window recently, every bit MAVEN was found to be on a standoff form with the Martian moon Phobos. NASA managed to foreclose the impact, though.

MAVEN stands for Mars Temper and Volatile Development — yes, it's pretty clunky by NASA acronym standards. It arrives in orbit of Mars ii years ago and set itself up in an elliptical orbit. It is equipped with instruments to analyze the state of Mars' atmosphere, which volition allows scientists to extrapolate the development of Mars over time. It is believed that Mars once had substantial liquid h2o on its surface and a much thicker atmosphere.

Phobos isn't especially big as far as moons go — it's essentially a large asteroid with a bore of 22 kilometers (xiii.6 miles). The highly elliptical nature of MAVEN'south orbit means it crossed the orbits of many other probes as well as Phobos. In that location'due south always a possibility that ii objects with crossing orbits volition be in the same place at the same time, but infinite information technology actually big. It'south not a particularly big possibility. However, after two years of performance, Phobos was coming up fast.

NASA calculated earlier this week that MAVEN had a take a chance of running into Phobos on March sixth. The orbital intersection of the two was only off by vii seconds. Even with Phobos' weak gravity, it could easily pull the probe off class and smash information technology to bits. The team had just a calendar week to get MAVEN on a different form, and then a course correction was sent. In the interest of expediency, NASA modeled the orbit with a 30-kilometer sphere standing in for Phobos. That's slightly larger than the moon, assuasive for more certainty the maneuver would put the probe clear of impact.

phobos

Phobos with its characteristic crater visible.

On Feb 28th, MAVEN fired its maneuvering engine to increase its velocity past 0.4 meters per 2nd. This small change means the intersection of MAVEN and Phobos volition now be separated past ii.5 minutes. That should put the probe out of harm'south fashion. MAVEN should non have any further encounters with Phobos and will proceed making observations of Mars through at least 2018. Afterward that, it may all the same exist used as a advice relay for other missions.