When you can't just blame SUVs, you have to do actual research

NASA Prepares Its New $485 Million Mars Mission

The mission’s principal investigator, CU’s Bruce Jakosky, explained that the research will involve the upper atmosphere and how the planet interacts with the sun and with the solar wind. According to scientists, the solar wind represents the sun’s outer atmosphere which manages to reach all the planets with charged particles. In our case, these particles are repelled by Earth’s magnetic field and the atmosphere is protected. The difference on Mars is that its magnetic field no longer functions, allowing the solar wind to break down its atmosphere.

“This mission is about understanding the history of liquid water,” Jakosky said. “Why did the atmosphere change? Why did a warmer, wetter planet turn into the thin, cold atmosphere we see today?” He also added that this is an outstanding mission which will provide fundamental science results for Mars, as the previous missions only investigated Mars’ lower atmosphere. In order to complete its tasks, the spacecraft will be equipped with at least eight scientific instruments and will take several samples from the various layers of Martian air in order to study the planet’s atmospheric gases, upper atmosphere and ionosphere. The planet’s drastic climate change represents the mission’s focus, as scientists are looking to identify its past state, the different stages it experienced and also a careful analysis of its current appearance.