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ten months TRAVEL
Mars: Maven game is to uncover the secrets of the atmosphere of the Red Planet
will study how climate change has led to the current dry condition and a weak atmosphere unbreathable
Maven (NASA) Among the many mysteries that Mars retains, in addition to the most important on the possibility of a past life or even present, there are also those of its atmosphere and water. Where is over, you ask the scientists, the rich blanket of gas that enveloped the planet in its early epochs when the volcanoes erupted and the water flowed abundant on the surface? The answer should come from the Maven probe that NASA has launched on Monday from Cape Canaveral.
STUDIO – The surface of the Red Planet now is cold (average 53 degrees below zero but can drop to 128 degrees) and the atmosphere is composed mainly (95 percent) by a thin veil of carbon dioxide. The pressure is very low and under these conditions the water can not remain because it vaporizes instantly. Once, however, with a thick blanket gaseous feed from volcanoes, the temperature was hot and the pressure was much higher, allowing the permanence of the precious liquid which is connected to the idea of ??life.
Animation of NASA, the slow death of Mars
WATER – That the water there was, now I have tried various rovers that have examined the minerals left in the ground. But how and where she is still not known. The idea is that there was plenty of time to create a great ocean in the northern hemisphere and fast-flowing rivers in the southern hemisphere, it is now fairly well-established. And the atmosphere where it is flown? And in what way? One explanation is that the solar wind coming from our star has over the course of millions of years wiped out the gas, at least the more light that enveloped her. This happened because Mars, unlike the Earth, does not have a magnetic field able to make a shield to this aggression.
The Red Planet ever seen the spectacular topographic model in 3D
THE TASK – short front Maven has the daunting task of unraveling the reason for a profound climate change, which has led to the current dry conditions immersed in a weak air unbreathable. Maven will take ten months to reach their destination on September 22 next year and then will scan orbit with his tools reds views looking explanations. Maven stands for “Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN” and it is a mission born by following a series of steps designed to investigate specific aspects of the Red Planet.
NEXT MISSIONS – In 2016, for example, will start InSight that perforates the surface to penetrate the first few layers of the subsoil. The expedition was planned at NASA’s Goddard Center where there is great experience for similar surveys conducted with weather and environmental satellites on our Earth. But there is a sharing with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena where they traditionally conceive interplanetary missions, and Mars in particular, and from here you will rule the journey and the work of the new probe cost $ 671 million and built by Lockheed Martin, also traditional supplier of spacecraft destined for Mars. Once arrived in orbit, Maven will rotate at a height of 6000 km but sometimes it will lower up to 150 kilometers to observe in more detail the particular surface.
INDIA – Maven will come a few days before the Mars Orbiter, launched the Indian space agency ISRO on November 5, which instead will have the task of detecting the presence of methane in the atmosphere that could either be of geological origin and biological.
EUROPE – Meanwhile in Europe is working hard to launch in 2016, the first probe of the ExoMars program, Space Agency ESA, which collaborates Russia, and that will be followed by a second expedition in 2018, bringing the first European rover. Italy participates in a consistent manner to the program through ASI, providing among other things a drill that will pierce the soil to a depth greater than that of InSight NASA
Giovanni Caprara
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