14 DAY TRIAL // Scientists at NASA have just released a new teaser video showing how their new Mars orbiter will investigate the Red Planet, its surface, its atmosphere and ionosphere, its interactions with the Sun and its rich history. The video is meant to be a time-lapse, as the sense of passing time is instilled through the use of fast-moving clouds.
It starts by showing images of a lush, though not green, planet that is covered in large bodies of water. The camera flies backwards over large seas and through narrow canyons for a while, but eventually it passes over a gorge and the soils suddenly become desert – we are on modern-day Mars.
As the camera finally lifts from the soil, still traveling backwards, we see that there are no more oceans, seas or lakes on this world, not even a small stream. After we reach the atmosphere, and then the planet's orbit, we finally see the NASA Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft flying past.
This video was released just a few days ahead of MAVEN's launch, which is currently scheduled to occur from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS), in Florida, on Monday, November 18. If all goes well, the orbiter will reach Mars on September 22, 2014.