Once on location, MAVEN will undergo five and a half weeks of a "transition phase" to set up for the start of scientific work, Jakosky said.
Armed with science instruments, MAVEN is prepared to, among other investigations, find out how much of the atmosphere of Mars and volatiles have been lost to space over time. Studying the current state of the planet's upper atmosphere, ionosphere and interactions with the solar wind is also high on the agenda.
"It's the simultaneity of measurements that's really the key to the MAVEN analysis," Jakosky said. No doubt, there's lots oPutting on his astrobiological hat, Jakosky said that by assaying the processes through which the top of the Martian atmosphere can be lost to space, scientists could better understand the changes in the climate of Mars over the last 4 billion years. That, in turn, means MAVEN might deliver insight into whether microbes could have survived on Mars in the pastf room for surprise findings, he added.
