The Basics of MAVEN

The United States' next mission to Mars will be departing Earth this upcoming Monday, November 18th from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. MAVEN, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN mission, will take 10 months to reach Mars then enter orbit. Once there, it will spend one Earth year (0.53 Martian years) passing repeatedly through the red planet's atmosphere where it will use its scientific payload to analyze the composition and physics of the thin atmosphere. To give a general comparison, Mars' atmosphere has only about 1/1000 the mass of our own.

Ground-based rover and lander missions have studied geological records of the planet's past and through that data it's become apparent that long ago Mars had a far more robust and complex atmosphere, possibly one like the Earth currently enjoys. The prevailing theory is that solar wind and radiation has had an eroding effect and scientists want to measure the rate of gaseous loss and ultimately understand if this is something that may someday cause changes to our own world. The other major benefit of MAVEN's research will be an understanding of what kind of atmosphere we would encounter on the first manned mission, allowing for more effective design and construction that will increase the chances of a successful landing on the red planet.

For more detailed information about this mission, check out the official Fact Sheet.