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DAVID MITCHELL/MAVEN Project Manager, NASA
Goddard Space Flight Center: Several billion

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years ago, Mars was vastly different than
it is today. From the evidence taken so far,

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it was a very wet environment -- rivers, lakes,
perhaps even oceans on the surface of Mars.

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A thicker atmosphere.

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Mars, as we know it, is a barren planet of
extreme temperatures and the thinnest of atmospheres

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. . . an environment too hostile to sustain
even microbial life.

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But has this always been the case?

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A variety of spacecraft launched in recent
years have examined the Red Planet's landscape

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up close and surveyed it from above -- and
discovered intriguing signs of an ancient,

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watery world.

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Now scientists seek to understand what could
have caused such a dramatic change . . . on

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a planet so near our own. A new NASA mission,
called MAVEN, is heading to Mars to investigate.

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BRUCE JAKOSKY/MAVEN Principal Investigator,
University of Colorado, Boulder: MAVEN is

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the first mission that we've sent to Mars
that has the primary goal of understanding

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the upper atmosphere. And what we're trying
to do with MAVEN is to learn how the atmosphere

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changed over time, and why. We think that
the atmosphere had a lot more water, a lot

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more carbon dioxide, early in history, when
a lot of the water-related features we see

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on the surface were carved. What we're trying
to do is to determine where did the water

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go? Where did the CO2 go from that early environment?

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The nearly three-ton MAVEN spacecraft is designed
to look at the Red Planet in a whole new way.

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Instead of focusing on the Martian surface,
MAVEN will keep its "eyes" trained on the

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upper atmosphere.

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MAVEN, which stands for Mars Atmosphere and
Volatile Evolution, is fundamentally different

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from the Mars missions that have gone before
-- rovers such as Curiosity, Opportunity and

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Spirit, and orbiters like Mars Odyssey and
the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

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JAKOSKY: When you look at the other spacecraft
that have gone to Mars, each one of them has

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explored a different piece of the Mars system.
With MAVEN, we're exploring the single biggest

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unexplored piece of Mars so far.

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After a 10-month journey from Cape Canaveral,
Florida to Mars, MAVEN will arrive at the

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Red Planet on Sept. 22, 2014.

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The spacecraft then will slip into Martian
orbit, and after another five and a half weeks

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of checkout, it will be ready to spend the
next Earth year carrying out its assignment.

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The Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics
at the University of Colorado Boulder leads

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the scientific portion of the mission, while
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland

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is responsible for the overall mission management.

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MAVEN is an eight-foot cube weighing about
5,400 pounds at launch -- as much as a fully

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loaded sport utility vehicle. With its twin
pairs of gull wing-shaped solar panels fully

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extended, it stretches 37 feet from wingtip
to wingtip.

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MAVEN brings with it eight instruments designed
to take a variety of measurements throughout

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Martian orbit in every region of "Near-Mars"
space. Built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems,

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the spacecraft makes the most of every available
spot for these scientific sensors.

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After a series of tests to prove the spacecraft
can handle the rigors of launch and the extremes

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of deep space, it was flown to NASA's Kennedy
Space Center in Florida aboard an Air Force

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C-17 cargo aircraft.

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With MAVEN on site at the spaceport, the final
preparations for liftoff intensified -- and

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excitement continued to build as the milestones
were checked off.

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GUY BEUTELSCHIES/MAVEN Program Manager/Lockheed
Martin Space Systems: It makes it all so real

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to see all this right in front of you. So
there's a tremendous amount of excitement

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not only from the team but our friends and
family coming down to watch this launch, it's

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kind of the culmination of a lot of years
of hard work by the team.

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Getting MAVEN safely off the ground and on
its path to Mars is the job of NASA's Launch

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Services Program, based at Kennedy.

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OMAR BAEZ/Launch Director/NASA's Launch Services
Program: LSP has been preparing for MAVEN

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for about five years, and maybe a little bit
longer if you look at the announcement of

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opportunities that came up before that. So
it's been quite a while. It's coming to maturity

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now.

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The MAVEN mission only has 20 days to launch
before its window of opportunity closes for

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about two years. That's because of the periodic
alignment of the Earth and Mars.

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CHUCK TATRO/Mission Manager/NASA's Launch
Services Program: Mars orbits the sun about

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half as fast as the Earth does. So that means
that every 26 months, the Earth and Mars are

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sort of aligned again, so that it takes the
least amount of energy for a rocket to deliver

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a spacecraft to Mars.

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MAVEN's ride to space is the Atlas V rocket,
a reliable workhorse with a history of success

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for NASA missions -- including the Mars Science
Laboratory mission featuring the Curiosity

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rover.

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While the Atlas V was readied for flight in
a hangar at Atlas Space Operations Center,

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or ASOC, on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station,
MAVEN was sent to Kennedy's Payload Hazardous

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Servicing Facility for one last round of checkouts,
tests, and closeouts.

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The processing team did face one significant
challenge with less than two months until

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liftoff: a 17-day government shutdown that
briefly halted prelaunch activities.

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BAEZ: It's kind of like a hurricane. We have
hurricane plans, but we don't have a government

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shutdown plan. So that's a hurdle. We overcame
it, we're moving forward, and we're ready

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to hit the beginning of the window. Luckily
our launch vehicle contractor was not affected

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as much by the shutdown and the work continued
there, so we're able to press forward. We

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were able to get a limited crew in here to
be able to work things.

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Today, MAVEN is still aiming for the same
launch period the team targeted from the start,

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and with liftoff right around the corner,
everyone is looking forward to seeing this

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spacecraft begin its mission of discovery.

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MITCHELL: Way back in 2008, we proposed for
a launch date of Nov. 18, 2013, and we're

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running right to it. It's quite an accomplishment
by the team. We're really excited. We're so

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close now. I mean, we're headed to Mars.

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JAKOSKY: This is all-consuming. I don't know
how to do anything except talk about MAVEN

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anymore, at least that's what my wife tells
me. And to see it come together now, to see

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it today, just about ready to go, I'm beside
myself.

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When launch day arrives, managers and controllers
from NASA's Launch Services Program, United

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Launch Alliance and the U.S. Air Force, along
with the spacecraft team, will report to their

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consoles in launch control for the start of
the countdown.

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By this time, the MAVEN spacecraft is sealed
in its protective payload fairing atop the

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Atlas V rocket on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral's
Complex 41.

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TATRO: Everybody has butterflies going into
launch day. No matter how much you plan and

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how much you practice, there's always things
that come up at the last second that make

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you nervous. We have a very good team to overcome
those, but you never know what's going to

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come up and grab your attention and so you
have to be ready and able to do that.

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JAKOSKY: The launch team, the launch vehicle
people, the spacecraft people -- these are

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the ultimate professionals who are doing their
best to make sure everything works properly,

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not only on launch day but for the whole mission.
And I've got absolute faith in their ability

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to deliver.

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A spectacular liftoff might be the most visible
milestone on launch day, but a successful

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climb to space is only the beginning.

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After the Atlas booster and Centaur upper
stage have carried MAVEN out of the grasp

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of Earth's gravity, another critical element
remains. The spacecraft must deploy its solar

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arrays and let its caretakers on Earth know
that it's healthy and on the right path.

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TATRO: When you get a positive confirmation
that the spacecraft has successfully separated

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from the second stage, and it's on its trajectory
and on its way to Mars, that's always very

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exciting. All that work that you've done over
the past five to seven years pays off.

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What will MAVEN discover? What will we learn
about our neighboring planet's past -- and

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what might this new information teach us about
our own planet?

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JAKOSKY: I'm just hoping that we'll get there
and get the data to answer these questions

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about where did the water and the CO2 go.
I don't really have a prediction or an expectation

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of what the answer's going to be. I'm just
hoping we can get that answer.

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MITCHELL: The thing about exploration is,
sometimes you don't know what you're going

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to find until you get there, and so we're
going to be exploring this planet, and there's

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going to be discoveries I believe that scientists
hadn't quite thought of, that are going to