Mars Atmospheric Loss

About this video

Sputtering to a cloudless sky.

With a certain Martian robot taking centre stage in 2012, we became curious about another NASA project set to explore the history of the Red Planet.

Luckily, NASA has provided this neat overview of MAVEN, a planned space exploration mission set to launch in 2013. The MAVEN spacecraft (or Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) will orbit the planet and study its atmosphere.  

Although the surface of Mars is dry and dusty with a very thin atmosphere above it, scientists think that the planet may have once had a thicker atmosphere, including cloudy skies and even water flowing over the surface.

A 'Maven' is a trusted expert seeking to pass knowledge on to others, and NASA hopes the project will provide a clearer idea of how Mars lost its atmosphere, and if there was ever life beneath its skies.

This video provides a great breakdown of one possible explanation, known as "sputtering".