September 21, 2014

MAVEN Maneuvers into Orbit Tonight

Join Our Community of Science Lovers!

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

Last summer, I attended a new media professionals workshop at the Laboratory of Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) in Colorado to learn more about the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission which launched last November. This orbiter is specially equipped to discover "What happened to the atmosphere of Mars?" The answers can begin to be answered once the MAVEN maneuvers into Mars orbit tonight.

In October 2013, before the launch, I helped SciAm host a Google Hangout on Air to speak with Chris Impey, astronomer and author of "Dreams of Other Worlds: The Amazing Story of Unmanned Space Exploration" and Nick Schneider, planetary atmospheric scientist a member of the NASA MAVEN Mission Science Team of LASP at the University of Colorado Boulder, about how scientists and engineers overcome challenges of robotic space exploration for successful data collection and to learn exactly how this mission is to determine where Mars' atmosphere went.

On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.

After nine months in transit, MAVEN is finally arriving and will enter into orbit tonight. This project stands out in NASA for being on time and on budget, so I'm expecting good things for Bruce Jakosky and the team as they get this one last thing just right!

If you want to follow the action you can do so by watching NASA TV, starting at 9:30 p.m. ET Sunday or hang around on social media, looking for the hashtags ‪#‎MAVEN‬ and ‪#‎JourneytoMars‬. Twitter updates are being posted via @NASA, @MAVEN2Mars and @NASASocial and myself.

Go MAVEN!

Subscribe to Support Independent Journalism

Great science journalism requires human expertise, time, effort and creativity. And it costs money. That’s why I and the journalists here at Scientific American hope you’ll join our community.

When you subscribe, you are supporting staff and freelance journalists who are passionate about telling science stories that are true, important and compelling. Our editors and reporters are often experts in their fields, which means they understand the nuances of big discoveries and can untangle the breakthroughs from the hype. With a subscription, you are also supporting rigorous fact-checking to ensure the words we publish are precise and accurate. And you’re supporting original illustrations, graphics and photos that bring you closer to an advanced laboratory, an ice sheet in Antarctica or a space mission in orbit. You’re helping us craft other types of high-quality journalism as well: Our newsletters are carefully written, edited and curated by staffers you have or will come to know and love. Our Science Quickly podcast is based on original reporting, collaboration with editors and scientists and exacting production.

Subscriptions keep this engine running so we can continue to deliver thoughtful, rigorous and independent science journalism to you. In an era of viral misinformation, this work is crucial. If you value what we do, I hope you’ll consider joining us as a subscriber

Thank you,

Jeanna Bryner, Editor in Chief, Scientific American