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MAVEN Ready To Launch Today

Posted by samzenpus on from the go-to-mars dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Mars seems to have gone from being a warm, wet planet with a liquid core (with magnetic fields strong enough to maintain an atmosphere) to a cooled frozen desert-like surface. By gathering information about the Mars upper atmosphere and its magnetic field scientists hope MAVEN can help explain what happened and where the water went."

14 of 55 comments (clear)

  1. Oooh by binarylarry · · Score: 2

    I wonder if this is in central?

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  2. Re:Pretty easy to speculate... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    I suspect you mean the necessary mass to retain that heat. The radioactive decay present in the core would continue at the same rate it does on earth ... it's just that it would have started with less, and would still to this day have less. There will be radioactive decay till the end of time (or close enough), if there were radioactive elements present to start with.

  3. Live Coverage by Ashenkase · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://spaceflightnow.com/atlas/av038/status.html

    Any other links out there? I generally use Spaceflight Now for the text updats along with the live feed.

  4. Re:Pretty easy to speculate... by Thanshin · · Score: 2

    ... and this IS slashdot, after all.

    There's so much that we share that its time we're aware, this is Slashdot after all.

  5. Not Magnetic Fields by camperdave · · Score: 2

    Magnetic fields are not what holds an atmosphere. Gravity does. Consider Venus. It does not have a magnetic field, yet it has quite a thick atmosphere.

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    1. Re:Not Magnetic Fields by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 3, Informative

      No, but they do deflect the solar wind, which can contribute to atmospheric loss (but then there are other also interactions with the solar wind which make things more complicated).

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    2. Re:Not Magnetic Fields by Gavagai80 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Venus does have an induced magnetosphere which limits its atmospheric losses... and it has lost its water content to solar wind.

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    3. Re:Not Magnetic Fields by camperdave · · Score: 2

      The induced magnetosphere around Venus is caused when the charged particles of the solar wind are deflected around the planet. Mars also has the same type of induced magnetosphere. As a matter of fact, the observation of Mars' induced magnetosphere is what lead to the conclusion that the planet doesn't have a significant magnetic field of its own.

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  6. Re:Pretty easy to speculate... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The radioactive decay present in the core would continue at the same rate it does on earth ... it's just that it would have started with less, and would still to this day have less.

    But Mars probably started with less radioactive material. The density of Earth is 5.5 kg/l. The density of Mars is 3.9 kg/l. So something in the early solar system caused more dense elements to end up on Earth rather than Mars. Most geothermal heat is caused by the decay of Thorium. Thorium is very dense, and is probably present in significantly higher concentrations on Earth, compared to Mars.

  7. Re:Pretty easy to speculate... by olsmeister · · Score: 3, Informative

    There is a theory that early in the Earth's history it was struck by a Mars-sized body, blasting off a large portion of the crust and mantle (incidentally forming the moon) and leaving behind a relatively large metal-rich core.

  8. Should we all talk? by Nexus7 · · Score: 2

    MAVEN's going to arrive around the same time as Mangalyaan, assuming both do arrive. The arrival rate at Mars is pretty low (with NASA having the best one, 70%). It's going to study the upper atmosphere, just as Mangalyaan plans to. This cost NASA $670 M, at a time when Congress is cutting everything like it (Comments about republicans and science withheld - Editor).

    I really hope these guys talk. I understand descriptions in popular media blur the details, but there seems to be a lot over overlap here.

    1. Re:Should we all talk? by Antipater · · Score: 3, Insightful
      The article from NBC mentions that there will be some cooperation.

      The teams for Maven and Mangalyaan plan to collaborate in their studies of the Red Planet's atmosphere. For instance, there's been some evidence that methane is being released into the Martian atmosphere, which could hint at biological activity. Curiosity hasn't detected any methane at the surface, and Maven won't be measuring methane because that doesn't mesh with the mission's scientific goals. But Mangalyaan can take a closer look at the methane question, and its results could add to Maven's models.

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  9. Re:Pretty easy to speculate... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

    The moon has a density of 3.3kg/l, lighter than either Earth or Mars, so that makes sense.

    Can someone please email the MAVEN team, and let them know that Slashdotters have already figured everything out, and they can cancel the launch?

  10. Thought we were talking about a Java build by sproketboy · · Score: 2

    It is newsworthy that you can get a build to work with Maven. /s