MAVEN: Cruise Phase

  • Released Thursday, September 4th, 2014
  • Updated Wednesday, May 3rd, 2023 at 1:50PM
  • ID: 4176

The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission (MAVEN) spacecraft was launched on a 10 month journey to Mars on November 18, 2013. MAVEN is expected to arrive in Mars orbit on Sept 21, 2014 EDT. MAVEN's mission is to investigate the upper atmosphere of Mars and its interactions with the Sun and solar wind. This will help scientists understand why Mars lost many volatile molecules form its atmosphere such as CO2, N2, and H2O.

These visualizations show the path has taken from Earth to Mars. There is a wide view from above the ecliptic plane and a view that slowly tilts down to about 45 degrees above the ecliptic plane.

MAVEN's cruise phase from Earth to Mars (top-down view)

MAVEN's cruise phase from Earth to Mars (oblique view)

Credits

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NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

Missions

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Series

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Datasets used in this visualization

GSFC Flight Dynamics Facility Ephemeris
Ephemeris GSFC/FDF 2013-11-18 through 2014-09-27
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DE421 (A.K.A. JPL DE421)
Ephemeris NASA/JPL 2013-11-18 through 2014-09-27

Planetary ephemerides

Dataset can be found at: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/?ephemerides#planets

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