Joe Palca
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Bruce Joukowsky was MAVEN's principal investigator when it went into orbit in 2014.
Mars is now a cold, arid planet, hostile to life.
But scientists believe it was once wet and warm and potentially habitable.
The Martian atmosphere most likely holds the explanation for why the climate changed so dramatically, and that's what the probe's instruments were designed to study.
NASA says it's still investigating why communications were lost.
Every two years, the orbits of Earth and Mars line up in such a way that it's possible to send a spacecraft from here to there.
The next time that happens is in the fall of 2026.
So until then, the Escapade probes will wait in a kidney-shaped orbit near Earth.
They'll then use Earth's gravity as a kind of slingshot to actually begin the 10-month cruise to Mars.
Once there, the two probes are designed to provide a unique picture of how charged particles from the sun, called the solar wind, interact with the thin Martian atmosphere.
They'll also make measurements helpful in understanding the ionosphere on Mars.
Every two years, the orbits of Earth and Mars line up in such a way that it's possible to send a spacecraft from here to there.
The next time that happens is in the fall of 2026.
So until then, the escapade probes will wait in a kidney-shaped orbit near Earth.
They'll then use Earth's gravity as a kind of slingshot to actually begin the 10-month cruise to Mars.
Once there, the two probes are designed to provide a unique picture of how charged particles from the sun, called the solar wind, interact with the thin Martian atmosphere.