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>>INTERVIEWER: Last November, NASA launched a new mission to Mars to investigate the mystery of how it

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became the red planet, and how it may have looked in the past. Now that mission

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is about to arrive, and here to join us from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in

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Greenbelt, Maryland is NASA Goddard Chief Scientist Dr. Jim Garvin. Thank you

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for joining us. >>JIM: Thanks for having me. >>INTERVIEWER: After nearly a year-long journey

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MAVEN is finally arriving at Mars. Tell us about the MAVEN mission entering Mars'

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atmosphere. >>INTERVIEWER: So MAVEN is an orbiting remote

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sensing mission that will study how Mars' atmosphere, the

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cold atmosphere of today, interacts with space weather, loses parts of

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itself to space, and connect that Mars of today to the Mars of the

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past, when we believe the atmosphere and conditions on Mars were warmer and

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wetter, more hospitable for life. So MAVEN is a time machine,

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to put the Mars of today into the context of the Mars of the past, and ask, "How did

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it evolve?" Why is it the way it is today, why is it the red planet, not the

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blue planet? >>INTERVIEWER: What will MAVEN do as it orbits Mars?

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>>JIM: So MAVEN's carrying a rich array of instruments that will allow us to

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measure for the first time how the atmosphere of Mars interacts with

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deep space, with the space weather particles from the Sun.

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It also carries instruments that will actually sample the chemistry of the

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atmosphere as it's being lossed to space, and connect that chemistry to the

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Mars chemistry of the past that we're measuring on the surface of Mars from rovers like

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Curiosity. >>INTERVIEWER: What else is NASA doing to better understand

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Mars, and what are our plans for the future? >>JIM: So right now, NASA has a rich array

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of robotic missions exploring the red planet. We're on the surface

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with two rovers, Curiosity and Opportunity. We have orbital

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constellation measuring Mars from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter,

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Mars Odyssey, and soon MAVEN. And we're planning new missions. A new rover mission

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that will extend what Curiosity's doing to a new place, with new instruments

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to actually capture pieces of Mars for return to Earth some day.

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All of these missions ask the question - Are there signs of

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past life recorded in the history of Mars? Its atmosphere, its rocks,

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its ices. Can we tell, could we ever tell? And to open the

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Martian frontier to the possibility of humans going there to explore

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our neighborly, brotherly planet.

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>>INTERVIEWER: How does studying the red planet's evolution help us understand the formation of other planets,

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including Earth? >>JIM: Well Mars is a canonical small rocky planet,

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in our very interesting little solar system. But,

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in the bigger scheme of things, we're discovering dozens if not hundreds of planets

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around nearby stars. Exoplanets. These planets we think

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have climates with atmospheres and histories as well. By understanding

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the difference between Mars and its evolution to its state of today,

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the cold, dry, red planet, from its Mars of the past, perhaps a wet

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blueish planet like Earth, we'll be able to understand these other worlds

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that we're discovering, and also put our solar system into the bigger context

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of this universe. It's out there beckoning, calling to us.

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>>INTERVIEWER: Sounds good, where can we learn more? >>JIM: Well you can

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go to NASA's website, www.NASA.gov/MAVEN,

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for the MAVEN mission, which will put MAVEN in context to our bigger

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journey to Mars. >>INTERVIEWER: Great, thanks so much for joining us. >>JIM: Thanks for having me.

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