- Big mystery -
MAVEN, which stands for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, launched in 2013 and began orbiting the Red Planet in September 2014.
Its goal is to help scientists understand one of the solar system's biggest mysteries -- what happened to the water on Mars and the carbon dioxide in its atmosphere several billion years ago?
Mars today has a very thin atmosphere, less than one percent as thick as Earth's.
Previous space missions using robotic rovers and orbiters have shown plenty of geological and geochemical evidence that climate change occurred on Mars.
But knowing more about what drove these changes could shed light on the potential for life on Mars, said Jakosky.
"We think that Mars had a very thick CO2 atmosphere and we are trying to understand where that atmosphere went," he said.
Researchers believe that the loss of ions to space was a "significant player" in changing Mars' climate, he added.