NASA's Mars spacecraft to begin orbit of Red Planet

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Agence France-Presse

NASA's Mars spacecraft to begin orbit of Red Planet
AFP
Sep 21, 2014 at 01:24pm

Washington: A NASA spacecraft that aims to study the upper atmosphere of Mars and reveal how its climate changed over time is poised to begin orbiting the Red Planet.

After a 10-month journey, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) probe is making its final approach to Mars and will begin circling Earth's neighbour after 9:30 pm today (0130 GMT Monday).

MAVEN's findings are expected to help pave the way for a future visit by humans to Mars, perhaps as early as 2030.

MAVEN, an unmanned spacecraft, has travelled 711 million kilometres since it launched late last year.

Read more: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/nasas-mars-spacecraft-to-begin-orbit-of-red-planet/500680-2.html

[Octafish]

1. We do live in interesting times.

[Bosonic]

2. Busy time for Mars

Indian spacecraft 'Mangalyaan' enters Mars neighbourhood

India's maiden mission to Mars has "entered the Martian neighbourhood", its space agency says, 48 hours before its planned arrival in orbit.

Launched last November, the spacecraft - known informally as Mangalyaan - will complete a 300-day journey to reach the orbit on Wednesday.

If it succeeds, India will become the fourth country in the world to claim a successful Mars mission.

US, Russia and the European space agency already have probes there.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-29306271