An artist's conception shows what NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed
An artist's conception shows what NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed, vast Martian glaciers of water ice under protective blankets of rocky debris at much lower latitudes than any ice previously identified on the Red Planet. Scientists analyzed data from the spacecraft's ground-penetrating radar and report in the November 21, 2008 issue of the journal Science that buried glaciers extend for dozens of miles from edges of mountains or cliffs. Reuters

MAVEN, National Aeronautic and Space Administration's twenty-first mission to Mars since the 1960s, will reach Mars this weekend after a journey of ten months and crossing 442 million miles. Maven spacecraft is a solar-powered, box aircraft which has the same weight of a 5,400-pound sports utility vehicle.

According to The Hoops News, the spacecraft will fulfil NASA's goal of exploring Mars to see if life could have thrived on the planet by viewing Mars from above rather than on the planet. MAVEN, short for 'Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, is NASA's first mission that is conducted to explore the red planet from above.

NASA updated the status of the spacecraft on its website and said that everything was going well with the spacecraft and would get close to the planet on Sep. 21. It added that the spacecraft was right on track.

It has been found that traces of water from the red planet suggest that life could have flourished on the planet because water is necessary for the maintenance of life. Since there has been traces of water and oxygen, scientists are looking out for the answer of why Mars has turned into a cold planet where nothing currently blooms.

A planet can become cold but cannot become hot from cold. There have been two circumstances considered about Mars: one, being that it had been hot and that it had preserved life at one time and the second being that it had never preserved life forms. Mars could have had traces of life similar to that of planet Earth but it would have existed in different conditions which has led for Earth to thrive and not Mars.

Bruce Jarosky, a chief investigator at the University of Colorado has several questions that he has put forth because of the recent findings about the red planet. His questions include 'Where did the water go?' and 'Where did the CO2 go from that early environment?'.

The MAVEN spacecraft closing in on the red planet is a rare opportunity for NASA and scientist as it was told to Jarosky that the odds of having an approach of 52 feet to Mars are about one in one million years.

YouTube/WochitGeneralNews