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NASA Begins Preparation for New Mars Mission

06 August 2013 04:58 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. NASA experts have begun preparations for the launch of a space probe designed to study the upper atmosphere of Mars, the US space agency said in a press release on its website.

The launch of the Mars Atmosphere and Volatiles Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft is scheduled in a 20-day period starting on November 18, APA reports quoting RIA Novosti.

“Scientists expect to obtain unprecedented data that will help them understand how the loss of atmospheric gas to space may have played a part in changing the planet's [Mars] climate,” NASA said in a statement on Monday.

According to NASA, the planned one-year mission will begin with the spacecraft entering the Red Planet's orbit in September 2014.

"MAVEN is not going to detect life," NASA quoted Bruce Jakosky, planetary scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder and MAVEN's principal investigator. "But it will help us understand the climate history, which is the history of its habitability."