MAVEN Results

The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft is the first to study the red planet’s upper atmosphere. It arrived at Mars in 2014 and will complete its primary science mission on November 16, 2015.  

On November 5, the mission team announced that MAVEN’s measurements indicate that the solar wind strips away the red planet’s atmospheric gas at a rate of about 100 grams (nearly 1/4 pound) every second. This slow but steady loss may have caused Mars’ transition from a warm and wet environment, which might have supported life, to today’s cold and dry one. 

 A. Artist concept of the MAVEN spacecraft. 

 B. Artist concept of a solar storm hitting Mars and stripping ions from the planet's upper atmosphere.