All is Well in the Martian Skies

I was glad to read that the various man-made Martian satellites survived the recent comet flyby (it helps that NASA had plenty of warning and placed the spacecraft at a safe distance to observe the event). With MAVEN having just arrived (Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have been orbiting for a while), as well as it's Indian peer, this could have been a problem. Given the numerous national failures to reach Mars, the last thing we need is a monster snow ball sweeping the survivors from the sky.  Comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring  can now go back to rattling around the solar system. 

Traffic Jam Over Mars

With NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft arriving at Mars earlier this week, and now India's Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) also arriving today, things are getting crowded in the Martian skies.

MAVEN's main focus will be the planet's upper atmosphere to determine what happened to the Red Planet's former atmosphere - did it blow away or submerge itself into the planet's surface?  India's MOM main mission was simply to arrive at Mars and thereby prove India's ability to accomplish interplanetary travel.  Mission accomplished!  Now that the probe is in orbit, it can begin a number of experiments to better understand the planet beneath it.

The two spacecraft join others already in orbit and still busy conducting observations, including NASA's Mars Odyssey launched in 2001 and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter launched in 2005, as well as the European Space Agency's Mars Express launched in 2003.  Other dead spacecraft may still be circling the Red Planet, such as NASA's Mars Global Surveyor, which stopped communicating in 2007.  Let's hope everyone can keep to their own orbit without colliding.