Now successfully orbiting Mars, NASA’s schoolbus-sized MAVEN spacecraft launched three years ago today.
MAVEN launch. Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
By looking at atmospheric gases and how they’re lost to space, the mission will infer how Mars’ climate has changed over its history. What impact did the loss of atmosphere have on the climate over time? What about its loss affected geologic and geochemical conditions? Essentially, did Mars ever have an environment that could sustain life?
The mission is also studying how the upper atmosphere interacts with the energetic particles from the sun, or solar wind. These particles could have eroded away the atmosphere over a long period of time.
Mars is cold and dry in modern times. What does geology tells us about the ancient Mars climate? It suggests that it was a lot warmer. Where did Mars’ ancient liquid surface water go? Where did the atmosphere go?
MAVEN, or Mars Atmospheric and Volatile EvolutioN, seeks to answer these questions.
Maven artist’s concept. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
The MAVEN mission is led by Dr. Bruce Jakosky from the University of Colorado.
Learn more about Maven at NASA.gov.