https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6764

NASA Orbiter Steers Clear of Mars Moon Phobos
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
March 2, 2017

NASA's MAVEN spacecraft performed a previously unscheduled maneuver this 
week to avoid a collision in the near future with Mars' moon Phobos.

The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft has been 
orbiting Mars for just over two years, studying the Red Planet's upper 
atmosphere, ionosphere and interactions with the sun and solar wind. On 
Tuesday, Feb. 28, the spacecraft carried out a rocket motor burn that 
boosted its velocity by 0.4 meters per second (less than 1 mile per hour). 
Although a small correction, it was enough that -- projected to one week 
later when the collision would otherwise have occurred -- MAVEN would 
miss the lumpy, crater-filled moon by about 2.5 minutes.

This is the first collision avoidance maneuver that the MAVEN spacecraft 
has performed at Mars to steer clear of Phobos. The orbits of both MAVEN 
and Phobos are known well enough that this timing difference ensures that 
they will not collide.

MAVEN, with an elliptical orbit around Mars, has an orbit that crosses 
those of other spacecraft and the moon Phobos many times over the course 
of a year. When the orbits cross, the objects have the possibility of 
colliding if they arrive at that intersection at the same time. These 
scenarios are known well in advance and are carefully monitored by NASA's 
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, which sounded the alert 
regarding the possibility of a collision.

With one week's advance notice, it looked like MAVEN and Phobos had a 
good chance of hitting each other on Monday, March 6, arriving at their 
orbit crossing point within about 7 seconds of each other. Given Phobos' 
size (modeled for simplicity as a 30-kilometer sphere, a bit larger than 
the actual moon in order to be conservative), they had a high probability 
of colliding if no action were taken.

Said MAVEN Principal Investigator Bruce Jakosky of the University of Colorado 
in Boulder, "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."

MAVEN's principal investigator is based at the University of Colorado's 
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder. The university 
provided two science instruments and leads science operations, as well 
as education and public outreach, for the mission. NASA's Goddard Space 
Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the MAVEN project and provided 
two science instruments for the mission. Lockheed Martin built the spacecraft 
and is responsible for mission operations. The University of California 
at Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory also provided four science instruments 
for the mission. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, 
provides navigation and Deep Space Network support, as well as the Electra 
telecommunications relay hardware and operations.

News Media Contact
By Nancy Neal Jones
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland
301-286-0039
nancy.n.jo...@nasa.gov

Laurie Cantillo
NASA Headquarters, Washington

Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-6278
guy.webs...@jpl.nasa.gov

2017-057

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