NASA Mission, MAVEN Spacecraft to Mars

NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft is about to enter the orbit of Mars after nearly a 10 month, 442 million mile journey to the planet. NASA believes this robot is going to help pave the way for Human exploration of the planet in the future.

NASA discusses some of the primary goals of MAVEN in a recent article:

“MAVEN launched Nov. 18, 2013, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying three instrument packages. It is the first spacecraft dedicated to exploring the upper atmosphere of Mars. The mission’s combination of detailed measurements at specific points in Mars’ atmosphere and global imaging provides a powerful tool for understanding the properties of the Red Planet’s upper atmosphere.”

Here is an image of how the spacecraft will enter the Mars orbit.

NASA seeks to figure out what happened to the water on Mars many years ago. They are also looking for answers as to how the atmosphere changed so much.

“The MAVEN science mission focuses on answering questions about where did the water that was present on early Mars go, about where did the carbon dioxide go,” said Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator from the University of Colorado, Boulder‘s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. “These are important questions for understanding the history of Mars, its climate, and its potential to support at least microbial life.”

Here is a quick video about MAVEN from the University of Colorado, Boulder:

Check out more about this spacecraft at NASA’s website.