TORONTO – The countdown clock is ticking for NASA’s next mission to Mars.
The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft is scheduled to blast off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 1:28 p.m. ET Monday.
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The spacecraft seeks to answer questions that astronomers still have about the red planet, such as why Mars went from having an atmosphere with wet conditions that could have supported life to the dry place it is today with little atmosphere.
“We don’t have that answer yet, and that’s all part of our quest for trying to answer, ‘Are we alone in the universe?’ in a much broader sense,” said John Grunsfeld, NASA’s science mission director.
MAVEN carries eight instruments and will take 10 months to reach Mars.
– with files from The Canadian Press
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