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MAVEN

Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN
MAVEN Transparent.png
Artist's rendering of the MAVEN spacecraft bus
Mission type Mars atmospheric research
Operator NASA
COSPAR ID 2013-063A
SATCAT № 39378
Website NASA MAVEN
Mission duration 1 Earth year.
Science phase extended through September 2016.
Additional 6 years as telecomm relay (planned).
Spacecraft properties
Manufacturer Lockheed Martin
CU-Boulder
Berkeley
NASA GSFC
Launch mass 2,454 kg (5,410 lb)
Dry mass 809 kg (1,784 lb)
Payload mass 65 kg (143 lb)
Power 1,135 watts
Start of mission
Launch date November 18, 2013, 18:28 UTC
Rocket Atlas V 401 AV-038
Launch site Cape Canaveral SLC-41
Contractor United Launch Alliance
Orbital parameters
Reference system Areocentric (Mars)
Periareion 150 km (93 mi)
Apoareion 6,200 km (3,900 mi)
Inclination 75 degrees
Period 4.5 hours
Epoch Planned
Mars orbiter
Orbital insertion September 22, 2014, 02:24 UTC
MSD 50025 08:07 AMT

MAVEN Mission Logo.png


Mars Scout Program
← Phoenix

MAVEN Mission Logo.png

Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN Mission (MAVEN) is a space probe developed by NASA designed to study the Martian atmosphere while orbiting Mars. Mission goals include determining how the planet's atmosphere and water, presumed to have once been substantial, were lost over time.

MAVEN was successfully launched aboard an Atlas V launch vehicle at the beginning of the first launch window on November 18, 2013. Following the first engine burn of the Centaur second stage, the vehicle coasted in low Earth orbit for 27 minutes before a second Centaur burn of five minutes to insert it into a heliocentric Mars transit orbit.

On September 22, 2014, MAVEN reached Mars and was inserted into an areocentric elliptic orbit 6,200 km (3,900 mi) by 150 km (93 mi) above the planet's surface. The principal investigator for the spacecraft is Bruce Jakosky of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder.

On 5 November 2015, NASA announced that data from MAVEN shows that the deterioration of Mars’ atmosphere increases significantly during solar storms. That loss of atmosphere to space likely played a key role in Mars' gradual shift from its carbon dioxide-dominated atmosphere - which had kept Mars relatively warm and allowed the planet to support liquid surface water - to the cold, arid planet seen today. This shift took place between about 4.2 to 3.7 billion years ago.


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