Final Assembly Completed By Lockheed Martin

The assembly of NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft has been completed, and the orbiter is now undergoing environmental testing at Lockheed Martin's Space Systems facilities, near Denver, CO. MAVEN is the next mission to Mars and will be the first mission devoted to understanding the Martian upper atmosphere.

During the environmental testing phase, the orbiter will undergo a variety of rigorous tests that simulate the extreme temperatures, vacuum and vibration the spacecraft will experience during the course of its mission. Currently, the spacecraft is in the company’s Reverberant Acoustic Laboratory being prepared to undergo acoustics testing that simulates the maximum sound and vibration levels the spacecraft will experience during launch.

Following the acoustics test, MAVEN will be subjected to a barrage of additional tests, including: separation/deployment shock, sine vibration, electromagnetic interference/electromagnetic compatibility (EMI/EMC), and magnetics testing. The phase concludes with a thermal vacuum test where the spacecraft and its instruments are exposed to the vacuum and extreme hot and cold temperatures it will face in space.

The goal of the MAVEN mission, scheduled for launch in late 2013, is to determine the role that loss of atmospheric gas to space played in changing the Martian climate through time. Where did the atmosphere – and the water – go? MAVEN will attempt to determine how much of the Martian atmosphere has been lost over time by measuring the current rate of escape to space and gathering enough information about the relevant processes to allow extrapolation backward in time.

(Image provided by Lockheed Martin)

FMI: www.nasa.gov, www.lockheedmartin.com