The space agency has moved their MAVEN spacecraft so that it will not collide with one of Mars' moon Phobos. It has made a necessary but unscheduled move last week.
MAVEN or Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN spacecraft has been observing Mars and its ionosphere for two full years. The Maven has been orbiting or encircling Mars for it to study its upper atmosphere. It was also tasked to study Mars relationship with the sun and their interactions. Additionally, it was there to see how Mars reacts to solar winds. NASA has reported that last Tuesday, Feb 28, MAVEN has moved its velocity faster by 0.4 meters per second.
It has to be done because it would crash in Mars moon Phobos if not. It was done a week before the predicted collision, stated Phys.org. This is the first ever, in two years, that NASA scientists have changed the speed of MAVEN. Scientists have made sure that MAVEN will not collide with Phobos as their orbit are near. However, things happened so they resorted to this, putting a rocket motor burn.
Since MAVEN does an elliptical orbit, it has a tendency to really collide with other spacecraft or the Phobos moon of Mars. It can meet with other things in space like moons and other spacecraft during the intersection. NASA scientists are watching it closely for the last two years. They have a special monitoring place in Pasadena, California for it, the JPL or Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The collision would have happen tomorrow if no action from NASA's side was taken. "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 of the University of Colorado in Boulder.
The seven seconds collision was stopped thanks to the JPL team in Pasadena, California and to the team in UC in Boulder. NASA will continuously watch put for more possible collisions.
