NASA has settled on a plan for next Mars mission

For a mere half a billion dollars, NASA plans to send a robot to the Red Planet in 2013.

NASA has selected a Mars robotic mission that will provide information about the Red Planet's atmosphere, climate history and potential habitability in greater detail than ever before.

Called the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft, the $485 million mission is scheduled for launch in late 2013. The selection was evaluated to have the best science value and lowest implementation risk from 20 mission investigation proposals submitted in response to a NASA Announcement of Opportunity in August 2006.

"This mission will provide the first direct measurements ever taken to address key scientific questions about Mars' evolution," said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

Mars once had a denser atmosphere that supported the presence of liquid water on the surface. As part of a dramatic climate change, most of the Martian atmosphere was lost. MAVEN will make definitive scientific measurements of present-day atmospheric loss that will offer clues about the planet's history.

"The loss of Mars' atmosphere has been an ongoing mystery," McCuistion said. "MAVEN will help us solve it."

The robotic space ship will arrive at Mars in the fall of 2014, and settle down in a highly elliptical orbit that will range from 90 to nearly 4,000 miles above the surface. During some orbits, the flying robot will actually dip down low enough to sample the upper atmosphere. After collecting data as its primary mission, MAVEN will continue to function as a communications relay.

More details here.