Magnetometers built by scientists and engineers at NASA GoddardSpace Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. for NASA's Mars AtmosphereAnd Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission have been delivered to theUniversity of California at Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory forintegration into the Particles and Field Package. "The team worked hard and completed delivery of the magnetometerson schedule," said Jack Connerney, Magnetometer Instrument Leadfrom NASA Goddard. "We are looking forward to launch, orbitinsertion and seeing the data come back." The pair of flux gate magnetometers measures the magnetic field atthe location of the spacecraft. As part of the Particles and FieldsPackage, the magnetometer sensors are positioned at the outermostends of the solar panels to keep them as far away as possible fromstray magnetic fields generated by the spacecraft. Since the motion of escaping charged particles is governed by themagnetic field, this measurement is important in understanding howthe solar wind interacts with the planet's atmosphere and causesloss to space. "The geometry of the magnetic field determines where particles goto and where they come from," said Connerney."If we want tounderstand particle motion, we need to visualize how the magneticfield behaves throughout the Mars environment." Scheduled for launch in late 2013, MAVEN will be the first missiondevoted to understanding the martian upper atmosphere. The goal ofMAVEN is to determine the history of the loss of atmospheric gasesto space through time, providing answers about Mars climateevolution. By measuring the current rate of escape to space and gatheringenough information about the relevant processes, scientists will beable to infer how the planet's atmosphere evolved in time. The instrument is powered on during the spacecraft cruise to Mars.Once powered, it has a heart that beats once per second. Everysecond, the instrument sends a packet of data to the Particles andFields Package. Each packet includes 32 vector samples of the magnetic field. TheParticles and Fields Package accepts the data and passes it on tothe spacecraft. The magnetic field vectors are also made availableto the other instruments onboard the spacecraft in real time. MAVEN's magnetometers were designed by a Goddard team that has along and varied history with building magnetometers for spaceresearch. They have provided instruments for many previous andupcoming planetary and heliophysics missions. The MAVEN spacecraft will carry three instrument suites. TheParticles and Fields Package, built by the University of Californiaat Berkeley with support from University of Colorado at Boulder'sLaboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (CU/LASP) and NASAGoddard, contains six instruments that will characterize the solarwind and the ionosphere of the planet. The Remote Sensing Package, built by CU/LASP, will determine globalcharacteristics of the upper atmosphere and ionosphere. The NeutralGas and Ion Mass Spectrometer, provided by NASA Goddard, willmeasure the composition and isotopes of neutral ions. "The magnetometer is the first of the science instruments to becompleted and delivered," said Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN PrincipalInvestigator from CU/LASP. "It's really exciting to see the payloadnow starting to come together. This is an important milestone inour path toward getting to Mars and using our measurements toanswer questions about the history of the martian atmosphere." NASA Goddard manages the project and is building two of the scienceinstruments for the mission. In addition to the principalinvestigator coming from CU/LASP, the university provides scienceoperations, is building science instruments, and leadseducation/public outreach. Lockheed Martin of Littleton, Colo., isbuilding the spacecraft and is responsible for mission operations. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as Magnetic Door Contacts , Security Alarm Siren for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Dual PIR Detector.
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