LITTLETON, Colo. NASA's next mission to the Red Planet is undergoing extensive testing in preparation for its launch next year.

Here within a Lockheed Martin Space Systems high-bay cleanroom, technicians are in tender-loving-care mode, busily outfitting and testing the Mars Atmosphere And Volatile EvolutioN (Maven) spacecraft.

This probe has a literal thirst for knowledge.

The goal of Maven, a $670 million Mars orbiter, is to study how Mars loses its atmospheric gas to space, and the role this process has played in changing the Martian climate through time. Mars' atmosphere is cold and dry today, but there was once liquid water flowing over the surface. So where did the atmosphere and the water go? [Video: Maven to Hunt Mars' Lost Water]

Maven's launch period is a 20 day window between Nov. 18 and Dec. 7, 2013. If the spacecraft is hurled Marsward on day one of that window, it will insert itself into orbit around the planet on Sept. 22, 2014.

Following a five-week commissioning phase, Maven is to settle into its primary mission, roughly in the opening days of November 2014.

Maven's one-Earth-year mission allows thorough coverage of near-Mars space. The probe is built to answer questions about the history of Martian volatiles and atmosphere, essential data to help reveal the nature of planetary habitability.

Direct descendent

Maven is deep in assembly, test and launch operations, a critical phase dubbed ATLO, said Tim Priser, Lockheed Martin's chief engineer for the spacecraft.

"If you look at the physical characteristics of Maven, it is a direct descendent of our Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter," Priser told SPACE.com.

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Maven's Haven: NASA's Next Mars Mission Preps for Launch