NASA's MAVEN mission blasts off to solve major Martian mystery
Source: Los Angeles Times
NASA's MAVEN mission blasts off to solve major Martian mystery
By Amina Khan
November 18, 2013, 3:14 p.m.
A rocket carrying the MAVEN spacecraft blasted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center at 1:28 p.m. ET Monday, on a mission to answer a profound mystery about Mars' planetary evolution: What happened to the atmosphere?
The agency’s latest robotic explorer will sample gas isotopes, catch solar particles and probe magnetic fields in the upper atmosphere, to try and figure out how long the Red Planet was capable of protecting liquid water -- and perhaps even supporting life.
Mars' atmospheric pressure is less than 1% of Earth's, making it so thin that it can't keep liquid water from boiling away. (There is water ice stuck to the freezing poles of Mars.) But scientists think the atmosphere used to be much thicker and warmer.
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The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN mission would use an array of instruments to test the sun’s effect on the thin remains of the upper atmosphere. That's because, wherever the thicker atmosphere went, scientists think the sun’s punishing radiation probably had a lot to do with it.
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Read more: http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-nasa-maven-mission-mars-launch-blasts-off-20131118,0,4861651.story
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