NASA Readies for Launch of Mars Mission

NASA is about to launch an unmanned mission to Mars called MAVEN. The spacecraft is loaded with scientific instruments to measure atmospheric conditions and understand the planet’s history of climate change.

Exploration of Mars will begin a new chapter soon, with the next spacecraft bound for the red planet ready to launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida November 18. The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission is set for a two-hour launch window to begin a 10-month journey to Mars.

When the craft reaches Mars in September 2014, it will establish an elliptical orbit to gather information about the atmosphere so scientists can develop a better understanding of how climate change has occurred in the planet’s history. An array of solar panels, stretched across its 11.5-meter wing span, will power the craft as it orbits Mars, once every four hours.

Previous orbital and ground missions have proven that stark changes in surface conditions have occurred through time. Mars had a warm, watery past, despite the cold, dry surface that has been widely photographed and sampled by several planetary rovers that have rambled over the surface.

How and why that transition happened is not understood. MAVEN, first conceived of 10 years ago, carries an array of instruments that will provide scientists with more data about the Martian atmosphere and solar forces that bombard it. By measuring characteristics such as the planet’s gases, temperatures, magnetic fields and solar influences, they’ll hope to gain more data to understand how it has become what it is. That knowledge will form the basis for future expeditions, and the long-term goal of sending humans to Mars.