MAVEN Science Teaser
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- Visualizations by:
- Ryan Zuber
- View full credits
The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN), set to launch in 2013, will explore the planet's upper atmosphere, ionosphere and interactions with the sun and solar wind. Scientists will use MAVEN data to determine the role that loss of volatile compounds from the Mars atmosphere to space has played through time, giving insight into the history of Mars atmosphere and climate, liquid water, and planetary habitability.
Learn more about MAVEN from Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN's Principal Investigator!
For complete transcript, click here.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
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Animators
- Ryan Zuber (UMBC) [Lead]
- Chris Smith (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
- Walt Feimer (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
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Video editor
- Chris Smith (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
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Scientist
- Bruce Jakosky (LASP)
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Interviewee
- Bruce Jakosky (LASP)
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Producer
- Chris Smith (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
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Videographer
- Chris Smith (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
Series
This visualization can be found in the following series:Related Pages
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ID: 11600 Produced Video
Countdown To Mars
Read moreHow did Mars’ climate change? How has the atmosphere been lost—and how quickly are gases escaping now? These are the questions that NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft will explore when it reaches the planet on September 21, 2014. Scientists believe Mars once had a thicker atmosphere that may have been gradually lost to space. The change would have had a considerable impact on the planet’s climate, liquid water and habitability, ultimately shaping the world we see today. Using a suite of instruments aboard the spacecraft, researchers will probe Mars’ upper atmosphere from orbit to study the processes that led to the thinning of its atmosphere over billions of years. Watch the video to learn more. ||
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ID: 11403 Produced Video
MAVEN National Air and Space Museum Presentation
Read moreAncient riverbeds, crater lakes and flood channels all attest to Mars's warm, watery past. So how did the Red Planet evolve from a once hospitable world into the cold, dry desert that we see today? One possibility is that Mars lost its early atmosphere, allowing its water to escape into space, and NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft will investigate just that. On September 25, 2013, MAVEN Principal Investigator Bruce Jakosky delivered a presentation at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, discussing NASA's next mission to Mars. An edited version appears below. ||
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ID: 11037 Produced Video
MAVEN: Mars Atmospheric Loss
Read moreWhen you take a look at Mars, you probably wouldn't think that it looks like a nice place to live. It's dry, it's dusty, and there's practically no atmosphere. But some scientists think that Mars may have once looked like a much nicer place to live, with a thicker atmosphere, cloudy skies, and possibly even liquid water flowing over the surface. So how did Mars transform from a warm, wet world to a cold, barren desert? NASA's MAVEN spacecraft will give us a clearer idea of how Mars lost its atmosphere (and thus its water), and scientists think that several processes have had an impact.Learn more about these processes in the videos below! ||
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ID: 11295 Produced Video
MAVEN Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph
Read moreThe philosophy of NASA's Mars Program has been "Follow the water," but "Where did the atmosphere go?" is still a lingering question. Although fluvial features such as dry riverbeds are visible on Mars, the atmosphere today is too thin to support liquid water, implying that Mars once had a thicker atmosphere that was lost to space. NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN Mission, or MAVEN, will test this hypothesis. As part of its remote sensing instrument package, MAVEN's Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph (IUVS) will look at isotopic hydrogen ratios in the upper atmosphere of Mars, helping scientists to determine just how much water once flowed across the Red Planet. ||
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