Targeting Mars
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- Visualizations by:
- Walt Feimer
- View full credits
If you want to send a spacecraft from Earth to Mars, how would you get it there? You can't aim straight at the Red Planet, because it's moving around the Sun significantly slower than the Earth. Instead, you'll have to wait for up to 26 months for a launch window, then carefully aim at a moving target. In November, 2013, the controllers of NASA's MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) spacecraft did just that. When MAVEN arrives, it will be the first spacecraft to study Mars's upper atmosphere in detail, helping scientists understand how Mars changed from a wet planet early in its history to the cold, dry world we see today.
NASA's MAVEN spacecraft is quickly approaching Mars on a mission to study its upper atmosphere. When it arrives on September 21, 2014, MAVEN's winding journey from Earth will culminate with a dramatic engine burn, pulling the spacecraft into an elliptical orbit.
For complete transcript, click here.
Watch this video on the NASAexplorer YouTube channel.
For More Information
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
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Animators
- Walt Feimer (KBR Wyle Services, LLC) [Lead]
- Chris Smith (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
- Ernie Wright (USRA)
- Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC)
- Michael Lentz (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
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Writer
- Dan Gallagher (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
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Video editor
- Dan Gallagher (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
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Scientists
- Bruce Jakosky (LASP)
- David Folta (NASA/GSFC)
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Producer
- Dan Gallagher (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
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Narrator
- Swarupa Nune (InuTeq)
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Project support
- Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET Systems, Inc.)
Missions
This visualization is related to the following missions:Series
This visualization can be found in the following series:Tapes
This visualization originally appeared on the following tapes:-
Cruising to Mars
(ID: 2014072)
Sunday, September 21, 2014 at 4:00AM
Produced by - Dan Jacob
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