MAVEN at Mars

  • Released Tuesday, October 14th, 2014
  • Updated Wednesday, May 3rd, 2023 at 1:50PM
  • ID: 11673

On September 21, 2014, NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, or MAVEN, spacecraft completed its 10-month journey and entered orbit around the Red Planet. As the first mission devoted to observing the tenuous upper atmosphere of Mars, MAVEN will help scientists determine how much of the atmosphere has been lost throughout the planet’s history and which processes have driven that loss. The spacecraft has already conducted preliminary observations of important gases in the planet’s upper atmosphere and sent those images back to Earth. Watch the videos to learn more about the MAVEN mission.

NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft has entered orbit around Mars and is observing the planet's thin upper atmosphere.

NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft has entered orbit around Mars and is observing the planet's thin upper atmosphere.

How will MAVEN explore Mars? Find out in this video.

This visualization shows the arcing path that MAVEN took from Earth to Mars. The spacecraft traveled 442 million miles over 10 months.

MAVEN is investigating atmospheric loss on Mars by observing how the thin upper atmosphere interacts with the sun and the solar wind.

MAVEN is investigating atmospheric loss on Mars by observing how the thin upper atmosphere interacts with the sun and the solar wind.

Mars’ surface (red) and the distributions of two gases being lost from its atmosphere—hydrogen (blue), atomic oxygen (green)—as seen by MAVEN.

Mars’ surface (red) and the distributions of two gases being lost from its atmosphere—hydrogen (blue), atomic oxygen (green)—as seen by MAVEN.

For More Information

See NASA.gov

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Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
MAVEN Mars images courtesy of NASA/University of Colarado/Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics