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MAVEN Outreach Webinars

MAVEN Outreach Webinars

MAVEN Outreach Webinars are virtual gatherings of MAVEN team members involved in bringing the science of the mission to the public. The purpose of the webinars is to continue to offer professional development for formal and informal educators, troop leaders, museum docents, and others interested in MAVEN and Mars science. These webinars allow the MAVEN team to update you on the latest data from MAVEN, as well as Mars and planetary science in general, and best practices in disseminating these results to multiple audiences.

By sharing information, resources, experiences, and lessons-learned, participants in these virtual gatherings will continue to learn from each other—as well as from planetary scientists and communications professionals—and take part in this valuable opportunity to engage with the mission and with each other.

All previous MAVEN webinars can be viewed in this YouTube playlist.


May 5, 2021—Mars exploration in 2021 and beyond

2021 has been an exciting year for Mars exploration. Four new spacecraft from three different countries arrived at Mars since the New Year—two that are orbiting the planet, one that has landed on the surface, and one that will land soon. At the same time, both government and private entities are planning for human exploration of Mars. What makes Mars such a compelling place to explore? What are we trying to learn and why?

In this talk, LASP scientist and MAVEN principal investigator Bruce Jakosky will discuss recent, ongoing, and future Mars exploration, international collaboration, possible human missions, and whether we can change the Martian climate to better allow humans to survive on the surface.

Presentation was part of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space (LASP) Public Lectures series


November 6, 2019—Can we terraform Mars?

People have been talking recently about “terraforming” Mars—making the environment more Earth-like by raising the atmospheric pressure so that people wouldn’t need spacesuits, and raising the temperature to allow liquid water to be stable at the surface. If this could be done at all, it would require using carbon dioxide (CO2), which is an effective and naturally occurring greenhouse gas. We would need to find sinks where the CO2 on Mars has gone and figure out how to put the CO2 back into the atmosphere. Is there enough CO2 on Mars to allow this? How easy would it be to mobilize the CO2 and put it back into the atmosphere?

In this Nov. 6 2019 presentation, LASP’s associate director for science and principal investigator for NASA’s MAVEN Mars orbiter, Bruce Jakosky, discussed how much CO2 was ever present on Mars, where it went, and whether it’s possible to put it back into the atmosphere to terraform the planet. He also spoke about future exploration plans for Mars, using both robotic and human missions, and the potential for colonizing Mars.

Presentation was part of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space (LASP) Public Lectures series


September 18, 2019Measuring Methane on Mars

(10 MB PDF)

Methane is an important gas in Earth’s atmosphere, released by volcanoes and excreted by many living organisms, including microbes. Several missions at Mars have found evidence for methane in its atmosphere, including a recent short-lived plume of methane measured by the Curiosity rover.

In this webinar from September 18, 2019, Dr. Paul Mahaffy, principal investigator of MAVEN’s Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer (NGIMS) and of Curiosity’s Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument, describes the recent and ongoing studies of methane in the atmosphere of Mars.

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Original file:
275 MB PDF
336 MB PPTX

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June 26, 2019Getting Cozy with Mars: MAVEN’s Aerobraking Campaign

(4 MB PDF)

The MAVEN spacecraft has successfully completed an aerobraking campaign, lowering the highest altitude of the satellite’s orbit to better transmit data from present and future Martian rovers and landers, while continuing its observations of the Martian atmosphere.

In this webinar from June 26, 2019, Dale Theiling, MAVEN’s Science Operations Center manager at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, describes the aerobraking process and provides an update on the mission.

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March 27, 2019The Magnetic Tail of Mars

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(2 MB PDF)

Mars has a unique magnetic tail compared to other planets in our solar system. The MAVEN mission has demonstrated how the Martian magnetotail becomes twisted by its interaction with the solar wind.

In this webinar from March 27, 2019, Dr. Gina DiBraccio from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center describes what makes the Martian magnetic environment so different from other planets, and how processes in its magnetotail may contribute to atmospheric escape to space.

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September 19, 2018An Overview of a Solar Storm at Mars

(6 MB PDF)

In September 2017, some of strongest solar activity of Solar Cycle 24 impacted Mars. This was the largest space weather event observed at Mars simultaneously in orbit by MAVEN and Mars Express, and at the surface by the Mars Science Laboratory.

In this MAVEN outreach webinar from September 19, 2018, Dr. Christina O. Lee of the Space Sciences Laboratory at UC Berkeley describes how the solar eruptive activity impacted the space environment around Mars, including its atmosphere and the radiation environment at the surface.

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August 15, 2018Challenges of Resurrecting the Martian Atmosphere

(4 MB PDF)

Many people have suggested that future Mars colonists may want to thicken the Martian atmosphere and make it breathable for long-term habitation of the Red Planet.

In this MAVEN outreach webinar from August 15, 2018, MAVEN Co-Investigator Dr. Robert Lillis of the UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory provides a MAVEN update and discusses the challenges of re-creating a thicker Martian atmosphere.

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April 18, 2018Do Habitable Worlds Require Magnetic Fields?

(3 MB PDF)

What does it take for a planet to be hospitable for life? In this MAVEN outreach webinar from April 18, 2018, MAVEN Co-Investigator Dr. Dave Brain of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) discusses the role a global magnetic field may play in the evolution of a planet’s atmosphere and in planetary habitability.

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February 28, 2018Making Mars: The story Mars tells about planet formation and migration in the early Solar System

(12 MB PDF)

Mars’ composition and properties were influenced by where and how it formed. In this MAVEN outreach webinar from February 28, 2018, Dr. Katherine Kretke of the Southwest Research Institute discusses planetary formation and migration and how Mars is proving to be a crucial piece of evidence as we try to understand how and where our planets formed.

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Video files:

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September 27, 2017Deep Dips: Designing a Mission Orbiter

(4 MB PDF)

The MAVEN mission has been orbiting Mars since 2014, making periodic “deep dips” to sample Mars’ upper atmosphere. Lockheed Martin designed the MAVEN spacecraft and manages mission operations. The spacecraft is based on the flight-proven designs of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Juno spacecraft, designed and built by Lockheed Martin, which has since based the design of NASA’s OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft on lessons learned from MAVEN.

In this presentation from September 27, 2017, Guy Beutelschies, former Lockheed Martin Program Manager for MAVEN and current Vice President of Communications Satellite Solutions, discusses the challenges engineers face in designing missions like MAVEN for success.

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May 24, 2017Mars and Venus: Terrestrial Analogues for Exoplanets

(5 MB PDF)

The MAVEN mission may help scientists understand how the atmospheres of other rocky worlds are also being eroded. In this presentation from May 24, 2017, Dr. Shannon Curry from the University of California Berkeley discussed how planetary bodies such as Mars and Venus can be used to provide insight into how atmospheres evolve, as scientists model (and begin to observe directly) the atmospheres of exoplanets.

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February 15, 2017The Sun’s Influence on Planetary Atmospheres

(6 MB PDF)
(6 MB PDF)

As the primary source of energy in the solar system, the Sun is the driver for most of the processes in planetary atmospheres. Variability in solar output both directly and indirectly causes variability in atmospheres, but how and how much depends on the particularities of the planet itself.

Since its arrival at the red planet in late 2014, the MAVEN mission has been measuring how Mars’ atmosphere responds to solar variability with the goal of understanding how the climate has changed over the age of the planet. In this presentation from February 15, 2017, Dr. Frank Eparvier from the University of Colorado Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric & Space Physics (LASP) and instrument lead for MAVEN’s Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) monitor discussed the Sun’s influence on the upper atmospheres of Mars and other planets.

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Video files:

  1. Slide 5 (2 MB MOV)
  2. Slide 7 (6 MB MOV)
  3. Slide 11 (7 MB MOV)
  4. Slide 12 (4 MB MOV)
  5. Slide 13 (6 MB MOV)
  6. Slide 14 (5 MB MOV)
  7. Slide 25 (3 MB GIF)
  8. Slide 26 (3 MB MOV)

Download Audio Only (16 MB mp3)