CAS’ Center for Space Physics (CSP) announced on September 18, 2008 that it would be participating in NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN, or MAVEN, mission. Now on September 21, 2014, a year after its’ 442 million-mile journey began, the MAVEN explorer is now orbiting Mars.
The $671 million mission is the first dedicated to studying Mars’ upper atmosphere. Scientists believe that it may help us understand how the planet went from being warm and wet billions of years ago to cold and dry today.
Director of the Center for Space Physics John T. Clarke was part of the proposing team for MAVEN in 2006, and Professors Paul Withers and Michael Mendillo were selected as Participating Scientists in 2013. Read more