With Mars being the focus of the next manned mission that NASA wants to field, a considerable amount of data is being examined about the red planet. Many science projects are studying just what it will take to build a human colony that is self sustaining on the planet’s surface.

While the NASA land rovers such as Curiosity and Opportunity have been providing invaluable details about the planet’s geography and chemical composition, there are a number of space crafts orbiting the planet as well. These include:

MAVEN: Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission is essentially trying to discover how Mars lost it’s atmosphere. MAVEN is also looking into the possibility of liquid water on Mars.

MOM: Mars Orbiter Mission was essentially the baby step of the Indian Space Research Organization in demonstrating what they can do for the technological future of an Indian Mars Mission.

MRO: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been monitoring the Martian climate and mapping future landing sites for subsequent missions to the planet.

Exomars Trace Gas Orbiter: This particular space craft is the latest to join the Martian orbit in October 2016. It will investigate the methane present in the Martian atmosphere.

As the days go by Mars can ready itself for a number of more visitors from it’s neighboring planet.