NASA | MAVEN Mission to Mars

Following liftoff, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, or MAVEN, spacecraft separates from the Centaur upper stage.

MAVEN Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph (IUVS) delivered to Lockheed Martin.

This artist's concept depicts NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft near Mars.

JPL CubeSat clean room is doing big things for space explorations smallest inhabitants.

At Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the United Launch Alliance Centaur second stage is lifted for stacking atop its Atlas V first stage at Launch Pad 41 in preparation for the Mars Atmo...

Three views of an escaping atmosphere, obtained by MAVEN’s Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph.

The orbit of MAVEN sometimes crosses the orbit of Phobos. This image shows the configuration of the two orbits in early December 2015, when MAVEN's Phobos observations were made.

An Atlas V rocket is being prepared for liftoff at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex 41.

Ultraviolet images from NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission, MAVEN, were used to make this movie of rapid cloud formation on Mars.

A full moon rises behind the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft onboard at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch...

MAVEN selfie composite, annotated

Members of the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) team celebrate at the Lockheed Martin operations center in Littleton, Colorado, Sunday night, after getting confirmation that the space...

For optimal performance, it’s important for the high-gain antenna to maintain a consistent temperature while the spacecraft experiences large temperature swings from being exposed to the Sun or in ...

Artist’s concept of Comet Siding Spring approaching Mars, shown with NASA’s orbiters preparing to make science observations of this unique encounter.

Mars’ nightside atmosphere glows and pulsates in this data animation from MAVEN spacecraft observations. Green-to-white false color shows the enhanced brightenings on Mars’ ultraviolet “nightglow" ...

MAVEN will use a Propellant Management Device (PMD), which is a static, all-metal structure inside the fuel tank that uses surface tension to ensure gas free liquid delivery to the tank outlet.

MAVEN selfie composite, unannotated

Graphic illustrating the MAVEN spacecraft encountering plasma layers at Mars.

This image is a stereo, panoramic view of various trenches dug by NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander. The images that make up this panorama were taken by Phoenix's Surface Stereo Imager at about 4 p.m., lo...

This animation shows the sudden appearance of a bright aurora on Mars during a solar storm. The purple-white color scheme shows the intensity of ultraviolet light over the course of the event, from...

Conceptual image of wind (blue arrows) flowing over rugged Martian terrain and generating disturbances that propagate upward as atmospheric gravity waves (grey lines). 

This visualization shows MAVEN and Comet Siding Spring making their way through the solar system to a close encounter near Mars. This animation maintains a fixed camera above the ecliptic plane of ...

The MAVEN Electra UHF Transceiver Flight Model is shown here.

Interact with this 3D model of MAVEN.

This anaglyph, acquired by NASA's Phoenix Lander's Surface Stereo Imager on Sol 33, the 33rd Martian day of the mission (June 28, 2008), shows a stereoscopic 3D view of the Martian surface near the...