Blast Off: Nasa's Mars Mission Under Way

Nasa has launched its unmanned Maven spacecraft towards Mars to study the Red Planet's upper atmosphere.
An Atlas V United Launch Alliance rocket carrying NASA's Mars-bound MAVEN spacecraft is readied for launch at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
The white Atlas V 401 rocket carrying the MAVEN orbiter
The white Atlas V 401 rocket carrying the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (Maven) orbiter took off on schedule at 18:28 UK time from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral in Florida.
NASA mission control said the launch was trouble-free.
"Everything is looking good," it said.
The robotic explorer is on a 10-month journey to Mars, where it will go into orbit and study the atmosphere to try to understand how the planet morphed from warm and wet to cold and dry.
Michael Meyer, lead Mars scientist at Nasa, said "It's only a little over 50 years ago that we first sent a planetary probe into space to move from just myth and fable to actually observation and measurements.
Artist's Concept Of Nasa Rover Curiosity
Curiosity rover has been on Mars since 2011
"We now have evidence with other measurements showing that there was water flowing on the surface of Mars. The environment at one point in time on Mars was able to support microbial life.
"But, you look at Mars today, it's cold, it's dry. We want to know what happened."
When Maven reaches Mars next September, it will join three functioning spacecraft, two US and one European.
Technicians work on NASA's next Mars-bound spacecraft, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft, as it is displayed for the media at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral
Technicians work on Maven at the Kennedy Space Center
Indian orbiter Mangalyaan will also be arriving at about the same time to study the atmosphere, but will go a step further, seeking out methane, a possible indicator of life.
Nasa's Curiosity rover has been exploring the surface of the planet since August 2011 and has made several discoveries to support the theory that Mars was once able to support life.
These include pebbles providing evidence that a stream once flowed on the planet, and more recently, Martian dust, dirt and soil suggesting a "substantial" amount of water on Mars.
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