NASA | MAVEN: NASA's Next Mission to Mars

Ancient riverbeds, crater lakes and flood channels all attest to Mars's warm, watery past. So how did the Red Planet evolve from a once hospitable world into the cold, dry desert that we see today? One possibility is that Mars lost its early atmosphere, allowing its water to escape into space, and NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft will investigate just that. On September 25, 2013, MAVEN Principal Investigator Bruce Jakosky delivered a presentation at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, discussing NASA's next mission to Mars.

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[xPolarGamingx]

I'm serious, this presentation was fantastic, and the visuals were amazing

[mylittlesofy]

Interesting. I love learning something new everyday. And this is a habit I love enjoying with my daughter

[zigzagman]

I may have missed it but not having a magnetic field to protect the atmosphere may have had something to do with it.

[ackbarfan]

T - 10 days! Oh man I am getting excited! Anyone seeing it live from Florida?

[DaimonAnimations]

Amazing, I can't wait for this to happen!

[waqqashanafi]

A whole mission just to see if the atmosphere is escaping Mars? Why couldn't we just piggy back that instrument on a future rover/orbiter mission?

[roidroid]

Is there evidence that earlier Mars was GREEN as the illustration video shows? I mean, afaik theres no evidence of life ever being on Mars, but that green looks like vegetation.

[archivist]

Why is the man in the left of the frame at time stamp 5:02 not wearing a face mask to keep it in clean room conditions?

[DavidLPeavy]

Charlie... I agree.  Since Mars doesn't appear to be geologically active there doesn't  seem to be much of a magnetic field to protect the atmosphere.  I suspect Mars has been cold and barren for billions of years.  Even so there may have been a catastrophic event like an asteroid impact or comet impact that started the chain of  events leading to its current in habitability. 

[Mathview]

Back of the envelope says a one hundred turn equatorial electromagnet would need roughly 4 MegaAmperes of current per turn in order to generate a dipole magnetic field strong enough to shield the Martian atmosphere from solar wind stripping. If Mars has a ferromagnetic core that might help, but the long magnetic diffusion time may reduce the usefulness of the core.  Just turn on the magnet, and sit back and wait for the atmosphere to build up until Terraforming is complete.  Hmmm... may be more to it than that. ;)

[sheiladavis]

Don’t we now know that most of the water is still there? As soon as they dug down through the dust there was ice, ice, baby!

[sagax]

can someone please explain me why if our moon has not been explored a lot, and is in our "backyard, then how it is easier to go and explore Mars than moon??? There has been more exploration to Mars than Moon, and by this time, why no one has ever created a moon station or someting???? ._.

[aart]

Dit schiet ook niet op!
Zoek naar dat zwarte gat !!!
De steren zijn uiteraard zeer belangrijk: ??? Uitleg? Later...

[xlilxillx]

“Over geologic time” LOL. Solar micro nova hit mars, we know.

[EmperorSanz]

@roidroid There is evidence of previous life, microbes.

[NexusEden]

Still Zero Design in Engineering - you really have got to marry the two disciplines, seriously. Engineering is still just boxes glued together with absolutely zero thought to Design and Form and Function - zero creative influence. It seems like an unnecessary and arbitrary element - but it is what is truly lacking from science in general. Form and Function need not be utilitarian and yes I know - costs money, well too bad, deal with it. We are representing the human race here in space - time to look like we have advanced to that next level, and maybe we will.
I just hate how unimaginative and sterile the design process is for such creative and inventive technology. Evolve already!