Derek Richardson

March 3rd, 2017

An artists illustration of NASAs MAVEN spacecraft in orbit above the Red Planet. Image Credit: NASA

NASAs Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN, or MAVEN, spacecraft just avoided colliding with Phobos, one of Mars two moons. An avoidance maneuver was performed on Feb. 28, 2017, to safely alter the trajectory of the orbiter.

MAVENsengines fired to change the velocity of the spacecraft by less than 1 mph (about 0.4 meters per second). This ensured the spacecraft would miss Phobos by about 2.5 minutes on its March 6, 2017, closest approach.

Phobos is one of two moons of Mars the other is Deimos. PhotoCredit: NASA/ JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona

Before the maneuver, the two objects would have crossed paths within 7 seconds of each other. However, with Phobos being nearly 19 miles (30 kilometers) long at its widest, that was too close for comfort for NASA as it had a very high likelihood of collision.

This was MAVENs first collision avoidance maneuver since it began circling Mars in 2013. The spacecrafts elliptical orbit around the planetcrosses other spacecrafts orbits as well as Phobos many times over the duration of a year. As the pathsof all of these objects are well known and monitored by NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, these events are usually known well in advance.

Kudos to the JPL navigation and tracking teams for watching out for possible collisions every day of the year, and to the MAVEN spacecraft team for carrying out the maneuver flawlessly, said MAVEN Principal Investigator Bruce Jakosky in a news release.

Currently, there are six spacecraft orbiting the planet. The most recent spacecraft, the European Space Agencys (ESA) ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, arrived in Fall 2016. ESA also has the Mars Express spacecraft, which has been orbiting the Red Planet since 2003.

In addition to MAVEN, the United States spacecraft circling Mars include the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey orbiting since 2005 and 2001, respectively.

India also has a spacecraft orbiting the Red Planet. Its Mars Orbiter Mission, also called Mangalyaan, has been circling Mars since 2014.

On the surface, there are two NASA rovers: Opportunity, which landed in 2004, and Curiosity, which landed in 2012.

Since 2014, there has been a record number of active missions on or around the Red Planet: seven from 2014 to 2015, and eight from 2016 to 2017.

A graphical representation of the orbits of five of the current six spacecraft circling Mars. ESAs Trace Gas Orbiter arrived after this graphic was created. It resides in a circular low-Mars orbit of 250 miles (400 kilometers) inclined by 74 degrees. Image Credit: NASA

Tagged: Jet Propulsion Laboratory Lead Stories Mars MAVEN Phobos

Derek Richardson is a student studying mass media with an emphasis in contemporary journalism at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. He is currently the managing editor of the student run newspaper, the Washburn Review. He also writes a blog, called Orbital Velocity, about the space station. His passion for space ignited when he watched space shuttle Discovery leap to space on Oct. 29, 1998. He saw his first in-person launch on July 8, 2011 when the space shuttle launched for the final time. Today, this fervor has accelerated toward orbit and shows no signs of slowing down. After dabbling in math and engineering courses in college, he soon realized that his true calling was communicating to others about space exploration and spreading that passion.

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MAVEN avoids crashing into Mars' moon Phobos - SpaceFlight Insider