MAVEN FAQs

Meet two of the Martian samples that have been collected and are awaiting return to Earth as part of the Mars Sample Return campaign. As of early August 2023, NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover has col...

Why are the tallest peaks in the solar system found on one of its smallest worlds?

A map of MAVEN's Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph (IUVS) auroral detections in December 2014 overlaid on Mars’ surface.

Anniversary artwork of NASA Viking 1 and Viking 2 Orbiters and Landers. Infographic text: Viking 40 Year Anniversary. 1976. #viking40

In December 2022, NASA’s Mars-orbiting MAVEN mission observed the dramatic and unexpected “disappearance” of the solar wind, a stream of charged particles that continuously emanates from the Sun.

Eberswalde Crater was one of the four final landing sites considered for the MSL rover. A channel leads into the crater and the lithified remains of a delta, a fan-like feature formed when sediment...

John Callas, project manager for NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers mission, makes the call ending the last formal session via NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) for the Opportunity rover at Mars on Feb. ...

In this image, taken July 19, 2019, in the clean room of the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at JPL, the rover's 7-foot-long (2.1-meter-long) arm maneuvers its 88-pound (40-kilogram) sensor-laden turr...

This ultraviolet image near Mars’ South Pole was taken by MAVEN on July 10 2016 and shows the atmosphere and surface during southern spring.

MAVEN's Imaging UltraViolet Spectrograph obtained images of rapid cloud formation on Mars on July 9-10, 2016.

The Solar Energetic Particle (SEP) instrument is part of the Particles and Fields (P & F) Package and determines the impact of SEPs on the upper atmosphere.

This animation depicts a flyover of a meteoroid impact crater on Mars that’s surrounded by boulder-size chunks of ice. The animation was created using data from the High-Resolution Imaging Science ...

This stereo view from the navigation camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows a vista across Endeavour Crater, with the rover's own shadow in the foreground. The view spans 216 com...

This graphic depicts the relative shapes and distances from Mars for five active orbiter missions plus the planet's two natural satellites. It illustrates the potential for intersections of the spa...

At Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex 41 a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket stands ready to boost the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, or MAVEN, spacecraft on a 10-...

We know what "The Red Planet" looks like from the outside -- but what's going on under the surface of Mars? Find out more in the 60-second video from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Download a PDF of the Mars Reconaissance Orbiter Fact Sheet.

MAVEN's Imaging UltraViolet Spectrograph obtained this image of Mars on July 13, 2016, when the planet appeared nearly full when viewed from the highest altitudes in the MAVEN orbit.

The free Spacecraft AR app uses Google ARCore technology to depict virtual 3-D models of NASA robotic spacecraft, such as the Curiosity Mars rover seen here.

Troy Hudson, right, shares the science of NASA's InSight mission with kids at San Francisco's Exploratorium in April 2018. Hudson is a scientist and engineer with InSight.

NASA’s first rover on Mars was a cute little bundle of robotic joy. Many thought it was likely to fail. Instead, Sojourner revolutionized how we explore Mars, and marked the start of 25 years of Ma...

Meet two of the Martian samples that have been collected and are awaiting return to Earth as part of the Mars Sample Return campaign. As of late June 2023, NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover has collec...

This artist's concept shows the MAVEN spacecraft in orbit around the Red Planet, with a fanciful image of her home planet in the background.

This 3-D image combines computer-generated models of the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit and its lander with real surface data from the rover's panoramic camera. It shows Spirit's position just after...

Download a PDF of the Mars 2020 Perserverance Rover Fact Sheet.