Mars Maven Spacecraft To Study Atmosphere

When you take a look at Mars, you probably wouldn't think that it looks like a nice place to live. It's dry, it's dusty, and there's practically no atmosphere. But some scientists think that Mars may have once looked like a much nicer place to live, with a thicker atmosphere, cloudy skies, and possibly even liquid water flowing over the surface. So how do you go from something like this--to something like this?

NASA'S MAVEN spacecraft will give us a clearer idea of how Mars lost its atmosphere, and scientists think that several processes have had an impact. MARS ATMOSPHERE AND VOLATILE EVOLUTION (MAVEN) is a planned space exploration mission to send a space probe to orbit Mars and study its atmosphere.

MAVEN will be launched in late 2013 and is planned to enter Mars orbit during the fall of 2014. More from PHYS.ORG.