NASA held a successful launch of a satellite to study the atmosphere of Mars

Yes, the launch of the MAVEN satellite (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN), whose purpose is to study the atmosphere of Mars, was somehow quietly launched. The term of the mission is a year. During this year, the orbiter will have to not only study the current state of the atmosphere of Mars, but also help scientists look into the past to understand what the atmosphere of Mars was in the past.

The spacecraft will rotate around the Red Planet in an elliptical orbit, and once MAVEN will have to fall to a height of 129 kilometers, taking samples of the upper atmosphere. Ideally, this device should help to understand why Mars has lost a significant part of its atmosphere, what caused this situation.
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After the device completes its mission, the scientists plan to use the satellite as a communication channel of other vehicles studying Mars and Earth.

By Mars, MAVEN will get no earlier than nine months, so wait a long time. And yes, the cost of the project initially amounted to about 480 million US dollars, but gradually this figure rose to 671 million dollars.

Via nasa