Goddard Engineering and Technology Directorate

Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN)

This illustration shows the MAVEN spacecraft and the limb of Mars. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
This illustration shows the MAVEN spacecraft and the limb of Mars. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Understanding the Martian Upper Atmosphere

The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission will determine how much of the Martian atmosphere has been lost over time by measuring the current rate of escape to space and gathering enough information about the relevant processes to allow extrapolation backward in time.

A decade ago, on Sept. 21, 2014, NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) spacecraft entered orbit around Mars, beginning its ongoing exploration of the Red Planet’s upper atmosphere. The mission has produced a wealth of data about how Mars’ atmosphere responds to the Sun and solar wind, and how these interactions can explain the loss of the Martian atmosphere to space.

Today, MAVEN continues to make exciting new discoveries about the Red Planet that increase our understanding of how atmospheric evolution affected Mars’ climate and the previous presence of liquid water on its surface, potentially determining its prior habitability.

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