NASA's Mission to Mars Granted Given Green Light Despite Shutdown

NASA's next mission to Mars is going forward despite the government shutdown, Principal Investigator Bruce Jakosky announced Thursday.

The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN) was analyzed by NASA officials who determined it meets the requirements for an emergency exception.

Tensions were running high around the mission that needed to be launched soon or else wait until 2016 due to orbital mechanics.

According to a statement by Jakosky, MAVEN is necessary to ensure NASA headquarters is able to keep in touch with the Curiosity and Opportunity rovers -- a responsibility currently being carried out by the Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

"Launching MAVEN in 2013 protects the existing assets that are at Mars today," he said.

Furthermore, any delay in launching would have meant expending additional fuel in order to achieve the correct orbit, Jakosky explained. This would have precluded MAVEN's ability to carry out the entirety of its mission.

Scheduled for a Nov. 18 launch, MAVEN was designed as the first spacecraft to make direct measurements of the Martian atmosphere. Its eight scientific instruments will provide researchers with a more detailed look into the speed and mechanism by which atmospheric gases are being lost today. Using this data, scientists hope to piece together a history of the planet's climatic and geologic history. Doing so will help determine whether the Red Planet was ever suitable for life, officials explained.

Science, however, was not behind officials' decision to grant the mission an emergency exception, Jakosky notes. Still, the researcher says the benefits are there.

"Although the exception for MAVEN is not being done for science reasons, the science of MAVEN clearly will benefit from this action," he said. "Launching in 2013 allows us to observe at a good time in the eleven-year solar cycle."