NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Current Missions | FUTURE MISSIONS | Past Missions



Mars Science Laboratory
Planned Launch: Fall 2011
Arrival: 2012

Building on the success of the two rover geologists that arrived at Mars in January 2004, NASA's next rover mission is being planned for travel to Mars before the end of the decade. Twice as long and three times as heavy as the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity, the Mars Science Laboratory would collect martian soil samples and rock cores and analyze them for organic compounds and environmental conditions that could have supported microbial life now or in the past.
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Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN)
Planned Launch: Late 2013
Arrival: 2014

The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft will provide information about the Red Planet's atmosphere, climate history and potential habitability in greater detail than ever before. MAVEN -- based on designs from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and 2001 Mars Odyssey missions -- will make definitive scientific measurements of present-day atmospheric loss that will offer clues about the planet's history.
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Beyond

NASA is developing a long-term Mars exploration program that charts a course for the next two decades. This visionary program will build on scientific discoveries from past missions and incorporate the lessons learned from previous mission successes and failures.
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