NASA's next Mars probe ready for Nov. launch, despite gov't slimdown

This artist's conception shows the NASA's MAVEN spacecraft orbiting Mars. The mission will launch in late 2013.LASP

NASA's next Mars probe should get off the ground on time, no matter how long the government shutdown lasts.

The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution orbiter, or Maven, got back on track for a Nov. 18 launch on Thursday (Oct. 3), just two days after the government shutdown froze liftoff preparations and put a scare into planetary scientists around the world.

"We have already restarted spacecraft processing at Kennedy Space Center, working toward being ready to launch on Nov. 18," Maven principal investigator Bruce Jakosky, of the University of Colorado, Boulder, wrote in a mission status update Thursday. "We will continue to work over the next couple of days to identify any changes in our schedule or plans that are necessary to stay on track." [How the Government Shutdown Will Influence Science and Health]

'Launching Maven in 2013 protects the existing assets that are at Mars today.'

- Maven principal investigator Bruce Jakosky

The shutdown — which went into effect at midnight EDT Tuesday, Oct. 1, when the Senate and House of Representatives failed to agree on an emergency spending bill — forced NASA to furlough 97 percent of its employees and cease most of its operations, including work on missions such as Maven that have yet to leave the ground.

So the $650 million Maven mission went into a worrisome limbo in the home stretch of its long march toward launch. A lengthy shutdown could have caused Maven to miss its liftoff window, which officially runs through Dec. 7 (though the spacecraft could actually launch as late as Dec. 15 or so, Jakosky said).

That would be a big deal, because the next opportunity for Maven to get off the ground won't come until early 2016, when Earth and Mars are once again properly aligned.

But those concerns have now evaporated. NASA has determined that Maven qualifies for an emergency exception because of its importance as a communications link between Earth and robots on the Red Planet's surface, Jakosky wrote.

"Maven is required as a communications relay in order to be assured of continued communications with the Curiosity and Opportunity rovers," he said. "The rovers are presently supported by Mars Odyssey launched in 2001 and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter launched in 2005. Launching Maven in 2013 protects the existing assets that are at Mars today."

NASA has no Red Planet relay orbiters planned beyond Maven, he added.

Maven was designed to help scientists learn how Mars' thin, carbon-dioxide-dominated atmosphere has changed over time, and what those changes may have meant for the Red Planet's ability to support life.

The probe will arrive in Mars orbit in September 2014. It will then use eight scientific instruments to study the Red Planet's upper atmosphere for one Earth year, which is about half of a Mars year.

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Humanity Again Ready to Make Giant Leaps into Space (ContributorNetwork)

Yahoo! News asked its readers and contributors to share their memories of the space shuttle program as it nears its end in July. Below is a story from a contributor.

[Your Voice: Sign up with the Yahoo! Contributor Network to share your thoughts.]

Intellectually, I am certain that it is time to retire the space shuttles from active service. We need to focus on the future instead of continuing to fly outdated vehicles into orbit. Emotionally, however, I have to say I have mixed feelings about the end of the space shuttle era.

[Related: Former NASA Chief of Staff Explains Why It's Time to Retire the Space Shuttle]

I remember the sense of wonder and excitement that I felt when a classmate in grammar school, knowing my interest in the space program, handed me the latest edition of Scholastic Magazine that featured and article about a planned reusable space shuttle in development by NASA. By the popular demand of thousands of Star Trek fans, the article said, NASA had to change the name of one of the early test shuttles to Enterprise.

The idea of a reusable launch vehicle that could glide to a runway landing seemed to me at the time to bring us one giant leap closer to making space travel a reality for the average person. Today, as the last space shuttle flight prepares to launch, that vision is even closer to reality. George Whitesides, President and CEO of Virgin Galactic told me he expects to be sending paying passengers to the edge of space next year.

I also remember watching the space shuttle Challenger as it seemed to disappear in forked trail of smoke. As I watched, I hoped that the smoke was caused by the jettisoning of malfunctioning booster rockets and that the shuttle itself would reappear and perhaps proceed to an emergency landing. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case and seven brave souls lost their lives on January 28, 1986.

[Related: Why Do So Many Remember Exactly Where They Were When the Challenger Exploded?]

The return to space after Challenger demonstrated that we, as a nation, could overcome adversity, learn from our mistakes, and push forward toward our goals. It also taught me that where much is at stake, one must use an abundance of care to make sure that things go the way one expects them to go.

[Related: Space Shuttle Rocket Scientist Discusses the Return to Space Effort]

Moving forward after the space shuttle, my hope is that we can develop safer and more cost-efficient launch and recovery vehicles, freeing resources for those grander goals that represent the next steps in our journey. With private companies beginning to find profit in space travel, we are once again ready to take one more giant leap into a future of nearly limitless possibilities.

[Related: Three Big Goals for NASA to Inspire a New Generations of Students]

Follow @Space_Matterson Twitter or 'like' the Space Matters Fan Page on Facebook for more of this author's space-related writing.

Brad Sylvester writes about the space program for the Yahoo! Contributor Network. Watching the Apollo missions through the static on a small black and white television sparked a lifelong interest in the space sciences for him. Since then, he has spent 40 years watching improvements in the technologies of space travel and our understanding of the universe unfold.

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