Another new mission NASA sets to launch for Mars.

Illustration of MAVEN spacecraft.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US space agency NASA announced it has given the green light to a mission to Mars aimed at investigating the mystery of how the "red planet" lost its atmosphere.

NASA gave the approval Monday for "the development and 2013 launch of the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission," the agency said in a statement, noting that the project may also show Mars' history of supporting life.

"A better understanding of the upper atmosphere and the role that escape to space has played is required to plug a major hole in our understanding of Mars."

Three main scientific instruments will be launched to Earth's neighbor aboard a craft in November 2013 as part of the 438-million-dollar project.

Clues on Mars' surface, including features that resemble ancient riverbeds and minerals that could only form in the presence of liquid water, suggest the planet "once had a denser atmosphere, which supported the presence of liquid water on the surface," said NASA.

However, most of the Martian atmosphere was lost as part of a dramatic climate shift. "Mars can't protect itself from the solar wind because it no longer has a shield, the planet's global magnetic field is dead," said Jakosky, describing how the magnetic field disappeared and the atmosphere then exposed to the punishing solar wind.

MAVEN will examine all known ways the sun is currently swiping the Martian atmosphere, and may discover new ones as well. It will also watch how the loss changes as solar activity changes over a year. The project is said to be a vital complement to past, present, and future Mars missions.

Aerospace giant Lockheed Martin will manufacture the spacecraft based on designs of NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey, launched in 2005 and 2001, respectively.