CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA’s newest robotic explorer, Maven, rocketed toward Mars on Monday on a quest to unravel the ancient mystery of the red planet’s radical climate change. The Maven spacecraft is due at Mars next fall after a journey of more than 440 million miles.
Scientists want to know why Mars went from being warm and wet during its first billion years to cold and dry today. The early Martian atmosphere was thick enough to hold water and possibly support microbial life. But much of that atmosphere may have been lost to space, eroded by the sun.
Maven set off through a cloudy sky Monday afternoon in its effort to provide answers. An unmanned Atlas V rocket put the spacecraft on the proper course for Mars, and launch controllers applauded and shook hands over the success.
Maven will spend an entire Earth year measuring atmospheric gases once it reaches Mars on Sept. 22, 2014. This is NASA’s 21st mission to Mars since the ’60s. But it’s the first one devoted to studying the Martian upper atmosphere.