NASA Mars Orbiter Arrives at Red Planet Tonight: Watch It Live

NASA's Maven Mission to Mars-Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) will arrive tonight and you can watch it live right here ATS.
The MAVEN mission is set to study the Martian atmosphere in greater detail than previous probes and providee insight into questions like: where is the water? Why is the atmosphere so thin? Can it support even microbial life? Etc......

You can watch the MAVEN spacecraft arrive at Mars on Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV, in a live webcast that runs from 9:30 p.m. to 10:45 p.m. EDT (0130 to 0245 GMT). If all goes well, MAVEN will enter orbit around Mars at 9:50 p.m. EDT (0250 GMT), according to NASA officials.

"So far, so good with the performance of the spacecraft and payloads on the cruise to Mars," David Mitchell, NASA's MAVEN project manager at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said in a statement. "The team, the flight system, and all ground assets are ready for Mars orbit insertion."

The $671 million MAVEN spacecraft eight instruments to study the Martian atmosphere in detail.

MAVEN will began making science measurements around Nov. 8, but the spacecraft will take a time-out from its commissioning phase to watch Comet Siding Spring pass close by on Oct. 19

There is a huge effort towards MARS as of lately. The Rovers are there, there are several probes in the atmosphere, planned manned flyby, planned colony........Anyway, I won't get into the politics of it, I just thought this event might be of interest to some.

Here's the link:

www.space.com...

It ain't live; there is a delay from Mars, then NASA's own delay, just so we don't see anything we shouldn't...

a reply to: lostbook

Cool , hopefully all goes well and we can see what MAVEN has to offer our understanding of our neighbor , busy time up there at the moment as India's Mars Orbiter is due in a couple of days.

We really need a properly funded manned mission now , perhaps an initiative to get boots on the ground and do something of merit in the 21st century rather than constantly sitting on our laurels .

originally posted by: HomerinNC
It ain't live; there is a delay from Mars, then NASA's own delay, just so we don't see anything we shouldn't...

How long is the delay from Mars? How much longer from NASA?

As Arken silently rubs his hands together and nods...

a reply to: lostbook

*sigh* there is no 'delay by NASA'.. Some people just like to live in a fantasy world where they star in a SyFy channel show or something as the clever hero, whatever floats their boat I guess...

There also won't be some sort of live video feed from the spacecraft either, there is no where near enough bandwidth in a link budget for a distance like that to accommodate it.

You can find the current distance between Mars and Earth using Wolfram Alpha here.

It is currently 14.1 light minutes away, so it will take about 14.1 light minutes for any signals to reach us and vice versa.

Edit to add:

I forgot to say, that it will just be confirmation via telemetry that it has been captured into Mars orbit. No live video, no aliens, no delays. Only exciting to people in the real world that have an interest in these things really.

a reply to: lostbook

Do we really have to go through Space.com to watch that broadcast? I try to avoid that site, as it simply copies what other sites have posted, and almost never credits the source. I'm sure you should be able to see that live MAVEN broadcast at NASA TV:
www.nasa.gov...
or
www.ustream.tv...

0130 to 0245 GMT is a very late-night time for me, I think I'll watch the replay in the morning.

a reply to: wildespace

Thanks for the link(s). I'm watching right now. Not as exciting as Curiosity and Opportunity but still pretty interesting...

a reply to: lostbook

NASA engineers have said that there is a twelve minute delay for signals sent back and fourth between Earth and Mars. I can live with that.

On another note, MAVEN is a very important mission pre-human colonization. It will answer the question of what happened to the Atmosphere? Where did it go?

if they film any Martians or other signs of intelligent life there will the videos be edited before we see them here on Earth

a reply to: lostbook

Watching this on stream as MAVEN's six engines have just recently kicked in to get into orbit. Hopefully, this mission will bring some sort of answers as to what happened to Mars' atmosphere over time but more importantly (in my opinion) is the fact that it will also be able to take different analysis of Mars' gases...gases that could eventually be used and manipulated to terraform.

Exciting times! S&F.

Just checked in, has MAVEN achieved orbit? I looked at NASA TV just now and it was a space station replay. Is orbit confirmed? Thanks.

originally posted by: Aleister
Just checked in, has MAVEN achieved orbit? I looked at NASA TV just now and it was a space station replay. Is orbit confirmed? Thanks.

Yes, MAVEN achieved orbit around MARS successfully. Now the fun begins.

originally posted by: blacktie
if they film any Martians or other signs of intelligent life there will the videos be edited before we see them here on Earth

Well, seeing as how there is a one way twelve minute delay for communications coming from or going to MARS; roundtrip of 24 minutes for a complete signal cycle-I suppose that is enough time for a skilled Graphics person to manipulate images. IDK

originally posted by: lostbook

originally posted by: Aleister
Just checked in, has MAVEN achieved orbit? I looked at NASA TV just now and it was a space station replay. Is orbit confirmed? Thanks.

Yes, MAVEN achieved orbit around MARS successfully. Now the fun begins.

Thanks. I had checked the news and found the successful orbit story. Tis good news. Always amazing how humans can calculate something like an insertion orbit and achieve it.

On tonight, live from 10PM Eastern time!

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