By the end of this month, two Mars-bound probes will enter orbit of the Red Planet. The first one to reach its destination will be the Indian Space Research Organization's Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM). It will reach on September 14 and it started its journey in November 2013. Scientific community is excited about both the missions and the information they can share about planet Mars.

MOM is India's first mission to mars and is made to search for elusive methane in Mars atmosphere from orbit. On August 7, MOM's Medium Gain Antenna passed its latest test, according to Space. com news report.

The second one, which will enter orbit of Mars, is the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) probe. In November 2013, after one week of MOM's launch, MAVEN also launched and it will reach its destination on September 21. To reach Mars, MAVEN travelled about 442 million miles.

For the orbit insertion, preparations were started early in MAVEN's stay, with two maneuvers to adjust the aircraft's route in December 2013 and February 2014.

At the time of the trip, MAVEN's three scientific instruments, the Particles and Fields Package, Remote Sensing Package, and Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer, were adjusted. In July, all the instruments were disabled as part of the orbital insertion preparations. It will not remain in the insertion orbit for its whole mission, science orbits will take MAVEN to within 90 miles of the Martian surface to observe the atmosphere and it will back out to 3,900 miles to study the entire atmosphere.

"MAVEN's orbit through the tenuous top of the atmosphere will be unique among Mars missions. We'll get a new perspective on the planet and the history of the Martian climate, liquid water and planetary habitability by microbes", said Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator at the University of Colorado in Boulder.