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MAVEN

Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN

Agency

NASA

Country

🇺🇸 USA

Launched

2013-11-18

End Date

2026-06-03

Mass

2,454 kg

Instruments

8 science instruments

STATIC, SWEA, SEP, LPW, MAG, NGIMS, IUVS, ACC — together sampling plasma, neutrals, and fields across the upper atmosphere

Orbit

Elliptical orbit, 145 × 6,200 km, 4.5-hour period; periodic deep-dip campaigns to ~125 km

Key Findings

1.Determined Mars loses approximately 100 grams of atmosphere per second to solar wind stripping via solar energetic particle events and coronal mass ejections
2.Calculated that solar-wind-driven atmospheric escape over ~3.5 billion years accounts for the transformation of Mars from a warm, wet world to its current cold, dry state
3.Detected widespread discrete and diffuse auroras driven by crustal magnetic field anomalies in the southern hemisphere — a class of aurora not possible on Earth
4.Measured a metal ion layer in the upper atmosphere originating from meteoroid ablation — the first detection of this phenomenon on another planet

Mission Outcome

MAVEN operated from September 2014 until contact was lost on December 6, 2025; after recovery attempts failed, NASA declared the mission over on June 3, 2026. Across 11 years its quantification of atmospheric loss rates provided the first direct physical evidence for why Mars lost its habitability, and it served as a key UHF relay for InSight and Mars 2020 (Perseverance). Its loss removes one of the two primary US relay assets at Mars.

Sources

[1] Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), University of Colorado Boulder — retrieved 2026-06-01
“MAVEN has revealed the processes that led to the loss of much of the Martian atmosphere to space, causing Mars to transition from a warm, wet environment in its early history to the cold, dry planet we see today.”
[2] NASA NSSDCA — retrieved 2026-06-01
[3] SpaceNews — retrieved 2026-06-12

NSSDCA catalog ID: 2013-063A

← All Mars Orbiters

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Program

Mars Exploration Program

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Mars flyby

Mariner 3

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Mars flyby

Mariner 4

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Mars Pathfinder (Carl Sagan Memorial Station)

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Mars lander

Mars Pathfinder (Carl Sagan Memorial Station)

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ESCAPADE (twin orbiters 'Blue' and 'Gold')

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Mars orbiter

ESCAPADE (twin orbiters 'Blue' and 'Gold')

From the same program

Key Findings

1.Determined Mars loses approximately 100 grams of atmosphere per second to solar wind stripping via solar energetic particle events and coronal mass ejections

2.Calculated that solar-wind-driven atmospheric escape over ~3.5 billion years accounts for the transformation of Mars from a warm, wet world to its current cold, dry state

3.Detected widespread discrete and diffuse auroras driven by crustal magnetic field anomalies in the southern hemisphere — a class of aurora not possible on Earth

4.Measured a metal ion layer in the upper atmosphere originating from meteoroid ablation — the first detection of this phenomenon on another planet

Mission Outcome

Sources

[1] Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), University of Colorado Boulder — retrieved 2026-06-01

“MAVEN has revealed the processes that led to the loss of much of the Martian atmosphere to space, causing Mars to transition from a warm, wet environment in its early history to the cold, dry planet we see today.”

[2] NASA NSSDCA — retrieved 2026-06-01

[3] SpaceNews — retrieved 2026-06-12