Lockheed Martin has started the assembly, test and launch operations (ATLO) phase of NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft, which is scheduled for launch in November 2013.
Over the next five months of the crucial final assembly phase, technicians will install subsystems on the spacecraft structure, which comprise avionics, power, telecomm, mechanisms, thermal systems, as well as guidance, navigation and control.
The spacecraft was installed with propulsion system in earlier this year and equipped with flight software in mid-August.
On 10 September, the project received authorisation to move into Phase D of the mission after a series of independent reviews were completed, which covered aspects on the project’s technical health, as well as programmatic issues such as schedule and cost.
MAVEN, a robotic exploration mission, aims to find out the role that loss of atmospheric gas into space played in changing the climate of Mars and how much atmosphere has been lost over time.
Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado is the principal team for the MAVEN project, while NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is overseeing it while developing two science instruments for the mission.
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By GlobalDataLockheed Martin is building the spacecraft and undertaking mission operations, while Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory at University of California is building instruments for the mission.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California is providing programme management operations and navigation support through the Mars Program Office, while the Deep Space Network, and the Electra telecommunications are relaying hardware and operations.
Image: An artistic rendering of MAVEN spacecraft that is set for launch in 2013. Photo: courtesy of NASA.
