Sun Planets and Moons ID: 11224

MAVEN Magnetometer

Released on March 26, 2013

When you navigate with a compass you can orient yourself thanks to Earth's global magnetic field. But on Mars, if you were to walk around with a compass it would haphazardly point from one anomaly to another, because the Red Planet does not possess a global magnetosphere. Scientists think that this lack of a protective magnetic field may have allowed the solar wind to strip away the Martian atmosphere over billions of years, and now NASA's MAVEN spacecraft will study this process in detail with its pair of ring core fluxgate magnetometers.

Credits

Chris Smith (HTSI): Lead Animator
Walt Feimer (HTSI): Animator
Michael Lentz (USRA): Animator
Michael Randazzo (Advocates in Manpower Management, Inc.): Video Editor
Dan Gallagher (USRA): Video Editor
Jared Espley (NASA/GSFC): Interviewee
John Connerney (NASA/GSFC): Interviewee
Dan Gallagher (USRA): Producer
Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET Systems, Inc.): Project Support
Rob Andreoli (Advocates in Manpower Management, Inc.): Videographer

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center