Mars space mission MAVEN is scheduled to launch on November but due to government shutdown, the Mars mission may be delayed as far as 2016.
Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution spacecraft, or MAVEN, is a planned space exploration mission to send a space probe to the Red Planet. Unlike other spacecrafts sent to the planet, it will focus on the atmosphere to find how the planet lost its atmosphere and water causing the climate to be inhabitable.
NASA is only one of the federal agencies that had to experience furlough or temporary leave without pay and cease of operations. Less than 600 employees remained to support current space missions at the International Space Station and on-going space observatories.
Although the possible impact of an extended shutdown would be devastating to the MAVEN team, the members are still hopeful.
Bruce Jakosky, Maven's lead investigator, said that they still have enough time to proceed with the launch as scheduled. The team is willing to work round the clock just to make it happen. The scheduled launch is Nov. 18.
"We're concerned, obviously, but we've got margin in our schedule, and the team is absolutely committed to getting off at this launch opportunity," Jakosky told SPACE.com. "If that means working double shifts and working seven days a week, we'll do that."
However, if they cannot take off by December 7, Mars won't be on schedule until 2016. It would take another year and two months for the Red Planet to be aligned with our planet for a favorable launch.
As of this time, Jakosky's team is doing their best to make sure that everything is in working condition including the documents and hardware. Their purpose is for the mission to be all-prepped up and ready for continued operations once NASA gets reinstated.
MAVEN’s target cost is less than $485 million up until the end of the mission excluding the launch costs which is roughly about $187 million.
