NASA launches new robot explorer mission to Mars

The newly launched Maven mission will search for clues about the planet’s missing water

13:35 18 November 2013

For several years, scientists are convinced that there were bodies of water in Mars. Now, they are looking to solve the mystery and understand what happened to the water that once existed on the Red Planet through Maven Mission, which launched on Monday.

Maven’s core goal is to study thin atmosphere to understand history of climate change.

Lead scientist Bruce Jakosky of the University of Colorado at Boulder, said: “Maven is going to focus on trying to understand what the history of the atmosphere has been, how the climate has changed through time and how that has influenced the evolution of the surface and the potential habitability – at least by microbes – of Mars.”

NASA’s robot explorer is expected to reach Mars on September 22. It will look at how much and what type of radiation is coming from the sun and other cosmic sources and how that impacts gases in Mars’ upper atmosphere.