MAVEN development to orbit insertion Options

[Marslauncher]

Not sure if this has been touched on before, I did not see a place for the MAVEN mission on the Past or Future missions subsection.

1)Will MAVEN have the ability to relay communication from the surface vehicles to Earth?
2)Am I correct in reading there are no visual cameras on MAVEN?


Fair Use.

http://lasp.colorado.edu/home/maven/scienc...rument-package/

The Particles and Fields Package, built by the University of California, Berkeley/Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL) with support from the University of Colorado Boulder/Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) and Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), contains six instruments that will characterize the solar wind and the ionosphere of the planet:

•Solar Wind Electron Analyzer (SWEA)
•Solar Wind Ion Analyzer (SWIA)
•Suprathermal and Thermal Ion Composition (STATIC)
•Solar Energetic Particle (SEP)
•Langmuir Probe and Waves (LPW)
•Magnetometer (MAG)
The Remote Sensing Package, built by LASP, will determine global characteristics of the upper atmosphere and ionosphere via remote sensing.

•Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrometer (IUVS)
The Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer (NGIMS), provided by GFSC, will measure the composition and isotopes of neutral ions.



Apologies in advance if this has already been answered. (btw I think we do need a MAVEN sticky in future missions)

John (Mars)

[nprev]

A very fine example of learning from experience & making improvements, I'd say. That's how it works.

[mcaplinger]

A very fine example of learning from experience...

I'm not sure what experience you're talking about. Previous Mars orbiters using aerobraking (e.g., MGS, MRO) have had articulated solar panels that could be shuttlecocked back for stability. MAVEN has fixed panels so this wasn't an option.