MAVEN of NASA marks 4 years in orbit with selfie

NASA's MAVEN spacecraft has released a selfie image of the spacecraft on Mars, celebrating its four years in orbit and studying the upper atmosphere of the red planet.

The MAVEN selfie image examines the ultraviolet wavelengths of sunlight reflected by the components of the spacecraft.

The image was obtained with the IUVS (Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph) instrument, which normally examines the ultraviolet emissions of the upper Martian atmosphere, the US space agency said in a statement.

"MAVEN has been a huge success," said Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN Principal Investigator at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

"Spacecraft and instruments continue to work as expected, and we look forward to further exploring the high Martian atmosphere and its influence on the climate," Jakosky added.

The IUVS instrument is mounted on a platform at the end of a 1.2 m dam (its own "selfie stick") and, while turning around the ramp, can watch the spaceship.

The selfie was made from 21 different images, obtained with the IUVS in different orientations, which were assembled.

In the selfie picture, lines are sketched to show approximately where the spacecraft components are which could not be imaged because of the limited movement of the instrument around its arm. support.

The thrusters can be seen lower left and right, the Electra communication antenna at the bottom left, the magnetometer and the sun sensor at the end of the solar panels at the top left, the tip of the communication antenna at the top in the middle. .

In addition, the IUVS 's shadow and its supporting arm can be seen in the middle of the spacecraft' s body.

The MAVEN mission was launched on November 18, 2013 and went into orbit around March on September 21, 2014.

Currently, the spacecraft makes about one passage per week with one of the rovers. That number will increase after NASA's InSight mission landed on Mars in November, NASA said.

In 2019, engineers will initiate an aerobic braking maneuver by flying over the spacecraft in the upper atmosphere of Mars to slow it down.

This will reduce the higher altitude of MAVEN's orbit to improve its ability to serve as a communication relay for data rovers to the surface, NASA noted.