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If you want to send a spacecraft from Earth to Mars, how would you get it there?

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You can't aim straight at the Red Planet because it's moving around the Sun almost 13,000 mph slower than the Earth.

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Instead, you'll have to wait for up to 26 months for the Earth and Mars

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to be in just the right spot in their orbits, then carefully aim at a moving target.

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In November 2013, the controllers of NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN mission,

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or MAVEN, did just that, launching the Mars-bound orbiter from Cape Canaveral, Florida on an Atlas V rocket.

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After separating from the rocket and the Centaur upper stage, MAVEN unfolded its solar arrays,

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pointed them at the Sun, and embarked on a ten-month cruise to Mars.

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The launch sent MAVEN arcing outward on a path called a transfer orbit,

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which will intersect with the orbit of Mars on September 21, 2104.

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By starting its journey when the Earth was behind Mars, MAVEN has been

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taking advantage of our planet's greater speed to catch up to its target.

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When MAVEN arrives, it will not be automatically captured by Mars's gravity,

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but will instead need to perform an engine burn to change its velocity by over 2,700 miles per hour.

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Just before Mars Orbit Insertion, the spacecraft will turn its thrusters in the direction of travel,

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then MAVEN will fire its engines for thirty-three minutes. The engine burn will slow MAVEN's velocity,

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allowing Mars's gravity to take over, and pulling the spacecraft into an elongated 35-hour orbit.

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In the following weeks MAVEN will reduce its orbit to four-and-a-half hours,

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then it will deploy its science instruments and begin collecting data.

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MAVEN's findings will reveal how Mars changed from a warm, wet planet early in its history,

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to the cold, dry world we see today, shedding light on one of the solar system's biggest mysteries.

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