After 11 years of planning, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft entered a successful orbit of Mars on Sunday, September 21. The information sent back from the satellite, will provide detailed information about the past, present and possibly the future of the Martian atmosphere. Beyond scientific inquiry and simple curiosity that information will tell researchers a great deal about the potential habitability of the red planet.

“As the first orbiter dedicated to studying Mars’ upper atmosphere, MAVEN will greatly improve our understanding of the history of the Martian atmosphere, how the climate has changed over time, and how that has influenced the evolution of the surface and the potential habitability of the planet. It also will better inform a future mission to send humans to the Red Planet in the 2030s,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden in a statement.

After 10 months en route, data was received at the Lockheed Martin operations center in Littleton, Colorado, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) navigation facility in Pasadena, California and NASA’s Deep Space Network antenna station in Canberra, Australia confirming a successful orbit insertion.

“NASA has a long history of scientific discovery at Mars and the safe arrival of MAVEN opens another chapter. Maven will complement NASA’s other Martian robotic explorers—and those of our partners around the globe—to answer some fundamental questions about Mars and life beyond Earth,” said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator of the NASA Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s Headquarters in Washington.

MAVEN will now spend the next 6-weeks moving into its optimal position and testing its instruments. The spacecraft will then begin it’s one-year primary position, measuring the composition and structure of the gasses in Mars upper atmosphere. It will also measure and monitor the escape of gasses from Mars.

Additional information on the MAVEN mission and spacecraft is available at nasa.gov/maven.