WEBVTT - Mars's MAVEN Mission 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.200 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:14.640 Forward Thinking, either unwelcomed to Forward Thinking, the podcast that 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:17.280 looks in the future and says, here comes the mathn 0:00:17.400 --> 0:00:20.520 He's coming around. He's such a connoisseur, he's such an 0:00:20.560 --> 0:00:25.720 autograph hound. I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm Joe McCormick. So 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:30.600 today we're gonna be talking about a particular NASA mission, Yes, 0:00:31.040 --> 0:00:36.120 the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution spacecraft. A Mathan. Oh, 0:00:36.159 --> 0:00:39.400 I was gonna say, that's a mouthful, but you've preempted me. Well, 0:00:39.400 --> 0:00:43.559 it's still a mouthful. You're not incorrect. So the the 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:45.960 You know, we've talked a lot about Mars on this show, 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:50.280 and because I mean it's it's a fascinating subject. It's 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:56.400 one of the possible jumping off points for uh further 0:00:56.520 --> 0:01:01.320 exploration into space, both manned and unmanned. Right, It's central 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:05.640 questions about whether there could exist life on other planets. 0:01:06.400 --> 0:01:08.880 You know, there's a question of, well, we don't seem 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:11.000 to see life on Mars today, or at least not 0:01:11.080 --> 0:01:13.920 so far, but maybe there could have been life there 0:01:13.920 --> 0:01:16.759 in the past. And if there had been, what conditions 0:01:16.800 --> 0:01:20.800 would have allowed that, And what changed? What? What? What 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:23.560 happened to the point so that now they're the conditions 0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:26.440 are no longer supportive of life. Another thing about the 0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:29.880 conditions of Mars is knowledge about what happened to Mars 0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:32.560 to make it the way it is today could help 0:01:32.640 --> 0:01:34.360 us in the future if we were to ever to 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:37.520 want to terraform Mars, to turn it into the kind 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:40.800 of planet that we could live on. Right. So, for example, 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:43.319 if we decided as a group, hey, you know what 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:45.560 would be awesome, let's just pack up a whole bunch 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:48.640 of oxygen, head over to Mars, let it loose and uh, 0:01:48.800 --> 0:01:51.680 party times, y'all. Uh, it turns out that would not 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:54.360 be an immediate solution to the problem. Would not be 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:56.600 so many party times now we would we would have 0:01:56.640 --> 0:01:59.480 to we would have to solve some other really big issues. 0:01:59.600 --> 0:02:02.440 And it's kind of one of the things may even 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:04.880 will be looking at, or at least the information that 0:02:04.960 --> 0:02:08.520 may even gathers could end up informing us, uh, and 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:11.440 when we come to make decisions like that in the future. Right, 0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:14.240 Because two of the big problems with you know, up 0:02:14.280 --> 0:02:16.760 and moving to Mars is that it doesn't have as 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:19.560 much of an atmosphere as Earth does, and it doesn't 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:22.680 seem to have water. Yeah, it's got it's got water 0:02:22.760 --> 0:02:24.720 and ice form, but it doesn't have any like free 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:28.359 flowing water on the surface. Yeah. Right, So it's those 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:31.120 are big issues. Obviously, there's also other ones, like the 0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:33.720 fact that Mars does not have a magnetosphere the way 0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:37.280 the Earth does. The Earth has a very powerful magnetosphere 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:40.880 that uh that surrounds us and binds us in PNOI 0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:44.959 that's the force. But it does protect Earth largely from 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:48.919 a lot of harmful radiation. Yes, Also it's Mars's soil 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:51.959 happens to contain a lot of percolates which are highly 0:02:52.000 --> 0:02:56.840 cancer causing particles. Um. But other than that, I think 0:02:56.840 --> 0:02:59.320 that the really interesting questions here and the things that 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:02.799 Mayven is going to be looking for are those atmosphere 0:03:02.840 --> 0:03:05.799 and water questions. Yeah, it's it's it's stuff that It's 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:08.680 not all about sending a rover onto the surface and 0:03:09.080 --> 0:03:11.920 exploring the soil, which we've done several times. This is 0:03:12.200 --> 0:03:16.760 specifically a spacecraft dedicated to orbiting Mars and sampling the 0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:20.080 atmosphere of Mars to learn more about it. Right, So 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:23.680 let's tell the story of Maven. Okay, sure, all right, 0:03:23.800 --> 0:03:26.639 you guys, Uh, gather around. Uh, I got some hot 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:30.080 chocolate over here. I'll tell you the story. So it 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:32.919 goes back to the mid two thousand's when there was 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:35.680 a lot of interest in Mars still is, clearly, But 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:39.080 NASA had this challenge of coming up with what how 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:40.920 are we going to study Mars? Right? What are what 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:44.000 are the next steps? How are we going to actually 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:48.800 implement this approach so that we can learn things? I 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:52.080 mean the answer was wide open at that point, right, 0:03:52.120 --> 0:03:55.560 So they started looking around, and they knew that they 0:03:55.600 --> 0:03:59.240 needed to keep the costs low because NASA had had 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:02.440 some budget cutbacks. It was no longer the era of 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:05.520 a three billion dollar space probe to be sent out 0:04:05.560 --> 0:04:07.920 into space. They needed to come up with ways they 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:11.160 were much less expensive and had a low risk of failure. 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:13.520 I mean, it would be terrible for you to send 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:16.839 something up into space and it malfunctions. That is not 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:19.880 a great uh, not a great message to send to 0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:21.760 the people who are signing the checks that are allowing 0:04:21.760 --> 0:04:24.000 you to get the science done. Uh, certainly not no. 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:26.560 And and right around that time, there have been a 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:29.479 few space shuttle failures that I'm sure we're fresh in 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:32.320 everyone's mind. Sure, And you know, we also were living 0:04:32.320 --> 0:04:34.520 in a post nine eleven world. There were a lot 0:04:34.560 --> 0:04:39.279 of things going into creating a complicated political atmosphere for 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:44.760 the space research budget. Yeah. So, Uh. The program that 0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:48.080 NASA came up with was called the Mars Scout program. 0:04:48.080 --> 0:04:51.240 It was specifically this approach to say, how can we 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:57.480 make efficient, low cost projects that will effectively explore different 0:04:57.560 --> 0:05:00.840 elements of Mars bring back then for animation to us 0:05:01.120 --> 0:05:03.960 that's in, that's useful, so that we can actually demonstrate 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:06.640 that this is an important work of science that we 0:05:06.680 --> 0:05:10.200 are doing and are likely, you know, the most likely 0:05:10.240 --> 0:05:15.040 to succeed. And so from the twenty six different proposals 0:05:15.080 --> 0:05:18.560 they looked at, they started off with the Phoenix Lander. 0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:22.400 You guys probably remember the Phoenix right, the Phoenix Lander. 0:05:22.480 --> 0:05:24.760 The thing I remember most about it is that they 0:05:24.760 --> 0:05:28.920 were NASA was very savvy and uh and ended up 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:34.760 using a social networking approach to communicating the Phoenix Landers 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:38.640 mission progress. And so there was a Twitter account dedicated 0:05:38.680 --> 0:05:41.400 to the Phoenix Lander, and it was all delivered in 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:45.120 the first person, so it's sort of anthropomorphized the Phoenix 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:48.760 Landers saying things. Um today, I discovered that kind of thing, 0:05:49.360 --> 0:05:53.200 and people developed an emotional attachment to the Phoenix Lander. 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:56.520 I mean they were they were emotionally invested in the 0:05:56.560 --> 0:05:59.599 science that was going on on Mars. Which is great news, 0:05:59.760 --> 0:06:02.640 right because now you've got people who are really interested 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:06.279 and evolved and they want this project to succeed so 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:09.240 much so that when the Phoenix Landers sent its final tweet, 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:12.800 people got really emotional. Uh it's sent a message in 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:16.160 binary code, and it was a Twitter message that was 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:18.400 all just one s zeros and if you were to 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:22.120 translate it, it's spelled out the single word triumph. And 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:26.679 immediately people broke down in tears, um, except for Gladys, 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:31.720 who just said anyway. Uh So that was the first 0:06:31.760 --> 0:06:34.440 of the Mars Scout program, and they all of the 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:37.520 programs had to uh or at least they were supposed 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:40.279 to cost less than than essentially half a billion dollars, 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:42.279 which sounds like, I mean, it's a huge amount of money, 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:46.479 but in space terms, it's you know, tiny, at least 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:49.800 as far as NASA's history is concerned. So around four 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:53.400 million dollars was like the That was the Capper. So 0:06:54.400 --> 0:06:57.880 the second project they looked at was Maven out of 0:06:57.920 --> 0:07:01.960 those those initial twenty six and uh, it turns out 0:07:02.000 --> 0:07:06.240 the MABN was the last of the Mars Scout project, 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:09.080 second and last. Yes, in fact, to the point where 0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:11.920 you know it launched is jumping ahead a little bit. 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:15.560 But it launched in two thousand thirteen, um, but the 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:18.960 the Mars Scout program was ended in two thousand ten. Now, 0:07:19.000 --> 0:07:23.360 the reason why Maven went ahead anyway is due to 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:27.200 the complex nature of the way Earth and Mars line 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:31.000 up and don't line up. So there are times when 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:33.560 you have an ideal launch window where you're going to 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:36.440 be spending the least amount of fuel in order for 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:39.640 you to get from Earth to Mars, right, because the 0:07:39.640 --> 0:07:42.480 planets are moving around, so sometimes they're further away from 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:44.960 each other, and sometimes they're close together, right, and and 0:07:45.040 --> 0:07:47.960 so you can't just launch when they're close together, because 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:50.000 by the time you're getting out to where Mars was, 0:07:50.280 --> 0:07:53.720 it ain't there no more. Right. Yes, I I posit 0:07:53.840 --> 0:07:57.880 that space travel is really the universe's most expensive and 0:07:57.920 --> 0:08:02.120 carefully calculated form of bacci. Yeah. Imagine that you're planning 0:08:02.120 --> 0:08:06.040 a family vacation to a specific destination, but that specific 0:08:06.080 --> 0:08:10.000 destination is also in motion relative to you. So, so 0:08:10.080 --> 0:08:11.960 the problem is that you have to plan for where 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:14.400 it will be, not for where it is. And uh, 0:08:14.560 --> 0:08:16.440 same sort of thing with Mars. I mean, it's it 0:08:16.480 --> 0:08:19.560 really is and so uh the problem there is that 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:22.680 if there's a delay in the process of getting your 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:26.520 spacecraft off the Earth and and towards Mars, you might 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:30.440 miss that window. And in fact, that did happen to Maven. Uh. 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:33.360 It was originally announced back way back in two thousand 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:36.960 seven that they were going to delay the launch until 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:40.760 two thousand thirteen, that would be the earliest. It's funny 0:08:40.760 --> 0:08:43.840 because if you look at NASA's records, it talks about 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:47.480 how Maven was approved for budget in two thousand eight. 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:51.160 So you might say, well, how the heck did something 0:08:51.320 --> 0:08:53.320 Did they delay a project in two thousand seven that 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:55.600 they have not yet even approved and budgeted, And it 0:08:55.640 --> 0:08:58.280 was because they realized already they were not going to 0:08:58.400 --> 0:09:01.440 meet that original launch a first window, right, Yeah, So 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:03.760 it meant that they were automatically going to be delayed 0:09:04.160 --> 0:09:07.560 twenty six months, even if all the technology and everything 0:09:07.559 --> 0:09:10.960 else went went perfectly, the design of the device, the 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:14.200 building of it, even if all of that worked, flawlessly 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:17.520 that that delay was still going to happen just because 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:22.319 of the way Earth and Mars orbit the Sun. So uh, 0:09:22.440 --> 0:09:24.280 it was a it was a tough blow, but it 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:26.199 was an important one. It turned out that the reason 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:28.680 for the delay in the first place was because there 0:09:28.840 --> 0:09:32.800 was a conflict of interest in the mission statements of 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:36.800 the various instrumentation groups. They were all putting stuff aboard 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:39.320 the maven and they had to say, look, if we 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:42.000 go forward with this, we are not doing We're doing 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:45.480 a disservice to the project. And I would rather, as 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:47.280 painful as it is, I would rather go ahead and 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:51.400 delay and and and hash all this out than to 0:09:51.720 --> 0:09:55.960 go forward and potentially endanger the entire program. You know, 0:09:56.720 --> 0:09:58.720 you also, if you if you know the history of NASA, 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:01.160 you also know there have been lots of stories of 0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:05.320 budgets getting out of control or at least inflating beyond 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:08.280 what they were originally anticipated to be. So they were 0:10:08.280 --> 0:10:12.199 being very careful about this. Now. The principal investigator of 0:10:12.240 --> 0:10:15.600 this entire project is Bruce Chakowski of the Laboratory for 0:10:15.880 --> 0:10:20.080 Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder, 0:10:20.760 --> 0:10:23.680 and the spacecraft itself was built by Lockeed Martin, not 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:25.760 a big surprise, Luckied Martin has done a lot of 0:10:25.800 --> 0:10:29.040 work with NESSA, and it was based on innovations that 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:31.760 were made for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Mars 0:10:31.760 --> 0:10:35.079 Odyssey missions. The original launch date again was going to 0:10:35.160 --> 0:10:37.880 be two thousand eleven. It got delayed to two thousand thirteen, 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:41.840 and in two thousand thirteen. October two thousand thirteen, so 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:46.560 this is essentially the month before it was supposed to launch. Yeah, 0:10:46.640 --> 0:10:49.520 in October two thirteen, there was a completely different issue 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:53.000 that threatened to once again delay Maven by another twenty 0:10:53.040 --> 0:10:58.760 six months. Mart worse government shutdown. I remember that. I 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:02.600 had some friends working for the Park Service at the time. Yeah. 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:05.120 It's it's rough, right, I mean, it's one of those 0:11:05.120 --> 0:11:09.360 things where you know, no one comes out looking good 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:13.440 in that situation. Now you're either you're either vilified for 0:11:13.520 --> 0:11:17.640 what you have done, possibly justifiably, or you are suffering 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:22.120 because of something else someone has done. And very rarely 0:11:22.160 --> 0:11:24.280 is that justifiable. But at any rate, it was. It 0:11:24.360 --> 0:11:28.400 was tough all over the United States. Oh, for many reasons, right, um, 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:30.959 but but in this specific case, so I mean, okay, 0:11:30.960 --> 0:11:34.240 So so the shutdown in the end only lasted sixteen days, 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:36.640 but there was only um but but there was no 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:38.439 way to tell at the outset how long that was 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:40.120 going to be, and it was no there was no 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:43.559 way of telling if it was going to delay enough things. 0:11:43.679 --> 0:11:46.880 You know, when you're coming toward a launch, the stuff 0:11:46.960 --> 0:11:48.800 is happening. It's it's not like they're resting on their 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:51.920 laurels right up until the countdown. It's not like you 0:11:51.960 --> 0:11:54.040 wake up five in the morning and I'll better go 0:11:54.120 --> 0:11:58.400 put the rocket on the launch pad. No, it's exactly 0:11:59.040 --> 0:12:02.920 a meticulous, us painstaking approach to get something into space. 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:05.960 I mean, it's obviously not an easy thing to do. 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:08.960 And so there was a lot of fear that this 0:12:09.400 --> 0:12:11.280 was going to end up delaying it again, which would 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:14.160 mean another twenty six month delay. The earliest that they 0:12:14.200 --> 0:12:15.640 could have a launch at that point would have been 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:18.600 two thousand six. And you might say, oh, you know, 0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:21.520 it's just the study of Mars, which is really cool 0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:24.360 but maybe not critical. Um so, why were they so 0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:26.960 worried about it? Well, they were able to show that 0:12:27.000 --> 0:12:30.320 there is a critical factor here, so you know, we've 0:12:30.320 --> 0:12:34.720 got the curiosity rover rolling around on Mars yea, and 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:38.480 it sends information back to us, which all the scientists 0:12:38.640 --> 0:12:41.400 clap their hands for and get really excited about. Well, 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:43.679 the reason why it's able to send information and part 0:12:43.840 --> 0:12:47.439 is because of communication relays that are set up to 0:12:47.480 --> 0:12:50.000 relay that information to communicate it back to Earth. Right. 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:53.160 So Maven is not the first spacecraft that will be 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:57.679 orbiting Mars. Right. So the problem is that the communication 0:12:57.800 --> 0:13:01.960 relays that are in operation on Mars are already beyond 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:05.720 their life cycle. They they have lasted longer than they 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:09.000 were projected to, which is great, but you you never 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:13.480 know when it's going to stop working. So the scientists 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:16.360 were pointing out the Maven, apart from just doing amazing 0:13:16.440 --> 0:13:19.440 science in the atmosphere of Mars, could also act as 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:23.920 a communication relay and supplement these older relays that could 0:13:23.920 --> 0:13:26.480 break down at any moment, and said, this is critical 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:29.880 to things we have already invested in. We have already 0:13:29.880 --> 0:13:32.760 put our money into this. They are already on Mars. 0:13:33.160 --> 0:13:36.360 Plus we have some other future plans that if they 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:39.880 do go into effect, will require those communication relays, So 0:13:40.080 --> 0:13:42.480 we need Mayven to be there. So they were looking 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:46.280 at a potential two year lapse in communication with the 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:48.920 Curiosity rover um, you know, during which it could go 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:50.360 out Lord of the flies on us. I know, we 0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:53.040 don't know now we we we would expect it would, 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:58.960 we'd re established contact. It has established the new Martian religion. Well, 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:01.040 you just have the red. You just hear that there 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:04.600 was a terrible incident with a with a someone only 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:09.560 identified by the name of Piggy at any rate, Um 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:14.640 that that that did not have, That did not happen, 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:19.120 as it's also the color of blood, you know, coming 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:23.880 back having having now that we've had our little literary digression. Um, no, 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:27.480 the the obviously that did not happen. Uh. The government 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:33.080 agreed with NASA and May even launched off as scheduled 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:37.000 in November two thousand thirteen, specifically November eighteen, two thousand thirteen. 0:14:37.720 --> 0:14:41.800 It's launch vehicle was an Atlas five vehicle, and the 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:45.320 May even slowly made his way to Mars because the 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:48.120 speed was not what was important. It was that that 0:14:48.200 --> 0:14:52.360 you know, concerned conservation of fuel. You know, that's the best, 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:54.760 the most important things because it cuts down that cost. 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:59.440 So it arrived in Martian orbit at ten thirty four 0:14:59.720 --> 0:15:02.880 p m. Eastern time. Whoa wait a second, is that 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:05.480 the time it arrived at the time we got the 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:08.160 signal that it arrived. That's a great question that I 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:09.840 do not know the answer to, because if you have 0:15:10.400 --> 0:15:13.200 you know, paid attention, you know that it takes like well, 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:15.560 when when the Curiosity Rover was landing it was a 0:15:15.560 --> 0:15:18.240 fourteen minute the lake just because that happened to be 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:21.080 how far apart Earth and Mars were at the time, 0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:24.120 but speak in say ten to twenty minutes. Yes, somewhere 0:15:24.160 --> 0:15:26.040 around there. It all depends on where the orbits were 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:28.320 at that point. But yeah, I think that's that's safe. 0:15:28.840 --> 0:15:33.240 At any rate. Um, the the Maven had had arrived 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:35.400 where it needed to be. It was a September two 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:37.000 thousand and fourteen. I didn't say what the date was. 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:43.040 It didn't arrive at ten that evening. Actually it went 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:45.880 from November eighteen, two thousand thirteen to September twenty, two 0:15:45.880 --> 0:15:49.480 thousand and fourteen. That's three hundred six days of travel um. 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:51.960 But it's four hundred and forty two million miles, so 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:54.320 I feel like it was making pretty good time. A considered, 0:15:54.560 --> 0:15:57.680 it would have made the Griswolds proud. But now it's there. 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:02.040 It's they're doing science. Yeah, well, it's their ish. It's 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:05.200 currently in a six currently by the recording of this podcast, 0:16:05.200 --> 0:16:08.240 i should say, and by the publication of this podcast, 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:11.840 will still be in this six week commissioning phase, which 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:15.760 is where it is maneuvering into its final science orbit. 0:16:15.800 --> 0:16:18.920 As of October tenth um it had activated its engines 0:16:18.960 --> 0:16:22.440 four times to kind of edge closer into the planet 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:24.520 into a into a lower orbit where it needs to 0:16:24.600 --> 0:16:27.320 be in order to do the science um and had 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:31.200 also activated and or deployed a few of its instruments 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:35.560 for for testing. Yeah and uh. Once it is in position, 0:16:35.920 --> 0:16:39.720 it will begin a one year scientific research mission, and 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:43.720 part of that mission includes what are called deep dip campaigns. 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:47.840 Deep dip campaigns different from campaign. Yeah. Well they're gonna 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:50.840 dip five times, so it's it's much better than double dipping. 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:54.720 Um they are. What this means is again, this is 0:16:54.760 --> 0:16:58.800 a spacecraft that is analyzing the atmosphere, the upper atmosphere, 0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:03.120 largely of Mars, but five times it's going to dip 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:06.720 down from around ninety three miles above the surface of 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:10.000 Mars to seventy seven miles or so, and the purpose 0:17:10.040 --> 0:17:12.520 of that is to study the area of the atmosphere 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:16.120 where the upper atmosphere meets the lower atmosphere of Mars. Yeah. Yeah, 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:19.840 it's getting the entirety of the upper atmosphere and and 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:23.200 really pretty close to the lower atmosphere kind of seeing 0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:26.879 where they interact. Now, that's going to be significantly different 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:31.359 than studying, say, the upper atmosphere of Earth, because Martian 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:34.720 atmosphere is much thinner than Earth's atmosphere, right right, Yeah, 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:38.280 those those numbers are way further down than um than 0:17:38.320 --> 0:17:43.160 they would be on Earth. Yeah yeah, yeah. Um, in 0:17:43.160 --> 0:17:46.119 in Earth terms, that would be something like a hundred 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:50.240 and fifty kilometers to kilometers above the surface. Um. Well 0:17:50.480 --> 0:17:52.800 that's not in Earth terms, that's just a metric to 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:56.520 imperial conversion, um. But ethnically it is Earth terms because 0:17:56.520 --> 0:18:00.399 I'm pretty sure alien civilizations don't use the kilometer accurate. Um. 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:02.639 But but that would be somewhere in the in the 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:06.320 lower to mid thermosphere here. So um, so that's that's 0:18:06.359 --> 0:18:10.120 way lower than we put our stuff into orbiting. Sure, sure, yeah, 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:12.480 we're looking at I was referring after the altitude, but 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:16.280 to the thickness of Martian atmosphere, which is Uh, it's 0:18:16.359 --> 0:18:21.640 one of earth density rather yeah. Yeah, it's very thin, yes, yeah, 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:26.240 and then that's part of why the spacecraft is necessary. 0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:28.000 We want to we want to find where did that 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:30.920 atmosphere go? Yeah, what happened to it? So in order 0:18:30.920 --> 0:18:33.480 to talk about what happened to it and to and 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:35.600 we have some ideas, we'll we'll talk about some of 0:18:35.640 --> 0:18:40.119 the things that have very likely, in fact, we're pretty certain, 0:18:40.240 --> 0:18:45.560 have caused the Martian atmosphere too um to disappear over time. 0:18:45.920 --> 0:18:47.879 But here are some of the tools that we're going 0:18:47.920 --> 0:18:50.239 to be using to actually study that to you know, 0:18:50.320 --> 0:18:55.040 support the hypotheses we've drawn. Number one, a hammer. There 0:18:55.200 --> 0:18:58.119 is no hammer aboard the Maven. Is there a mystical X? 0:18:58.359 --> 0:19:01.800 There's no There are no arms on the Maven. Neutral 0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:04.760 gas and ion mass spectrometer, Now, Joe, you're just being 0:19:05.480 --> 0:19:08.159 son of a gun. You're right, there is a neutral 0:19:08.200 --> 0:19:11.640 gas and ion mass spectrometer. Purse you, Joe. Uh. Yeah, 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:14.320 that's the instrument that measures the composition and isotopes of 0:19:14.400 --> 0:19:18.280 thermal neutrals and ions. So essentially it's going to determine 0:19:18.320 --> 0:19:21.480 the basic structure of the upper atmosphere and ionosphere of Mars. 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:23.760 So when you say neutrals, you're talking about an uncharged 0:19:24.080 --> 0:19:27.560 particle essentially ions. Obviously that's something that has either gained 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:30.119 or lost on electron and thus has a net charged. 0:19:30.640 --> 0:19:33.200 This is just straight up looking at what particles are there. 0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:37.399 Then you've got the Remote Sensing package, which is UH 0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:40.600 that includes the Imaging Ultraviolet spectrograph, and that's going to 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:44.040 look at the global characteristics in the Martian upper atmosphere, 0:19:44.119 --> 0:19:47.960 so kind of looking at the overall composition as opposed 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:51.200 to specific segments of the atmosphere. It's kind of more 0:19:51.280 --> 0:19:55.160 like a U Satellites eye view, I guess. So then 0:19:55.200 --> 0:19:58.840 you've got the Particles and Fields package, which includes six 0:19:59.040 --> 0:20:02.720 different instruments. The magnetometer, which is an instrument that is 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:05.680 used to measure the strength and direction of magnetic fields. 0:20:05.720 --> 0:20:09.600 We mentioned you know, the Martian UH planet does not 0:20:09.760 --> 0:20:12.160 have a magnetosphere the way the Earth does. That doesn't 0:20:12.160 --> 0:20:15.240 mean it doesn't have one at all. It does. It's patchy, 0:20:15.280 --> 0:20:18.840 it's smaller, it is not as effective at warding off 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:22.960 the solar wind, but it is there. So this would 0:20:23.000 --> 0:20:24.840 be one of the instruments that would be able to 0:20:24.880 --> 0:20:27.760 detect it and kind of get us more information about it. 0:20:28.720 --> 0:20:33.320 So then there's the supra thermal and thermal ion composition, 0:20:33.720 --> 0:20:36.879 which will measure the source ion populations and sort between 0:20:37.040 --> 0:20:40.840 shocked solar wind and planetary ions, in other words, saying 0:20:40.880 --> 0:20:42.960 which one of these came from the Sun and which 0:20:42.960 --> 0:20:45.639 of these were affected by the Sun but came from Mars. 0:20:46.960 --> 0:20:50.000 Then you've got the Solar Wind Electron Analyzer, which will 0:20:50.000 --> 0:20:53.200 measure the solar wind and ion a spheric electrons. It 0:20:53.200 --> 0:20:55.280 will look at the effects of electron impact in the 0:20:55.320 --> 0:20:59.040 Martian atmosphere. You're probably picking up on some themes here. 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:04.000 The Solar Wind ion Analyzer, which will study the ionization 0:21:04.080 --> 0:21:08.240 rates of neutral particles as an input to atmospheric loss processes. 0:21:08.600 --> 0:21:11.280 So we talked about, you know, what made the Martian 0:21:11.359 --> 0:21:13.919 atmosphere leave, like why is it? Why is it no 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:16.399 longer there? This is one of those instruments that's going 0:21:16.440 --> 0:21:21.399 to be looking specifically at the factors that affect the 0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:25.760 Martian atmosphere why is it escaping? So really we're looking 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:28.440 at here is the effects of the solar wind on 0:21:28.480 --> 0:21:30.960 the Martian atmosphere and how that's kind of ripping away 0:21:31.359 --> 0:21:35.000 the atmosphere of Mars. Uh, it will also measure the 0:21:35.000 --> 0:21:38.159 Martian magnetosphere, which again is not terribly strong, and how 0:21:38.200 --> 0:21:41.800 the solar wind affects that magnetosphere on Mars. And then 0:21:41.840 --> 0:21:45.000 you've got the solar energetic particle, which is an instrument 0:21:45.040 --> 0:21:49.240 that will determine the impact of solar energetic particles on 0:21:49.280 --> 0:21:51.680 the upper atmosphere of Mars. And I like the names 0:21:51.720 --> 0:21:56.320 that are they totally make sense. Now, does anyone know 0:21:56.600 --> 0:21:59.040 how to say this first word? I know how I 0:21:59.040 --> 0:22:00.760 would say it, but I'm used to hear while you 0:22:00.840 --> 0:22:04.640 would say it. I was going to say langer yea, yeah, 0:22:04.680 --> 0:22:07.080 I was gonna saying more like lang mirror so a little. 0:22:07.480 --> 0:22:09.679 So I was going like, it sounds like it's a progression. 0:22:10.200 --> 0:22:13.880 We had lang mir, Langmuir, and then langmir. At any rate, 0:22:13.960 --> 0:22:17.520 it's a probe and waves, and it's an instrument that 0:22:17.520 --> 0:22:21.400 will look at ionospheric properties, wave heating of the upper atmosphere, 0:22:21.400 --> 0:22:25.440 and solar extreme ultra violet input to the atmosphere. So 0:22:25.720 --> 0:22:29.000 again it's really looking to see what how the Sun 0:22:29.520 --> 0:22:32.200 has affected the atmosphere of Mars. That's ultimately what we're 0:22:32.240 --> 0:22:35.040