NASAGoddard

The spacecraft's solar panels are bent at a 20-degree angle. As MAVEN travels through the upper atmosphere, the air pressure will increase to a point that could disrupt flight dynamics if the solar panels were flat. MAVEN’s bent solar panels shift the center of air pressure away from the spacecraft’s center of gravity, providing a self-stabilizing configuration for atmospheric flight. The effect is similar to the self-stabilization provided by feathers on a badminton shuttlecock.

As Jared gets logged in, here's the most recent NASA story about MAVEN: "MAVEN Seeks to Solve Another Mars Riddle"

http://www.nasa.gov/content/maven-seeks-to-solve-another-mars-riddle

NASA's next Mars explorer soon will leave Earth on a mission to answer one of the Red Planet's greatest conundrums: If our arid celestial neighbor once had a thicker atmosphere and a surface flowing with water, as evidence suggests, how did the climate change so dramatically?

MAVEN, which stands for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, is slated to launch Nov. 18 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) in Florida.

The scientists and managers behind the mission gathered in a Kennedy Space Center clean room Sept. 26 to get an up-close look at the MAVEN spacecraft, and to share their enthusiasm with reporters and photographers.

"After 10 years of working on this, I can't tell you how excited I am to see this finished spacecraft ready to go," said the mission's principal investigator, Bruce Jakosky, as he stood in front of MAVEN's outstretched solar panels in the high bay of Kennedy's Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility. More here: http://www.nasa.gov/content/maven-seeks-to-solve-another-mars-riddle

Surface features and mineral compositions suggest ancient Mars had a denser atmosphere and liquid water on its surface, according to Joseph Grebowsky of NASA Goddard.

More here: (Including animations) http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-video-illustrates-maven-missions-investigation-of-a-lost-mars

From: Jim Morrissey, Instrument System Manager, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

"Here's the definition of "gull wing" note that it's not called "sea gull shape"

The gull wing is an aircraft's wing configuration with a prominent bend in the wing somewhere along the span, generally near the wing root. Its name is derived from the seabirds which it resembles. It has been incorporated in aircraft for many reasons.

MAVEN has the bend in the solar arrays to provide aerodynamic stability during our deep dips into the Mars atmosphere.

Jim

Proof:

https://twitter.com/NASAGoddard/status/401050345591144448