BOULDER, Colo. -- The University of Colorado was chosen Monday to lead a $485 million NASA project to explore the past climate of Mars, including its potential to sustain life.

A team led by CU's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics will design, build and operate the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission, or MAVEN. The spacecraft will probe the upper atmosphere of Mars and its interactions with the sun.

Scientists will use the data to determine how the evolution of the Martian atmosphere was affected by the loss of carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, water and similar volatile compounds into space.

The results should provide insight into the history of Mar's atmosphere and water, said Bruce Jakosky, associate director for CU's lab and principal investigator for the mission.

"We have an outstanding mission that will obtain fundamental science results for Mars," Jakosky said.

It is the single largest research contract in the CU's history and will have a $200 million impact on the Colorado economy. It's an orbiting space mission that university leaders say will propel Colorado not only to the red planet but to a strong space economy.

"We're standing here today at the University of Colorado, but your work is helping us to become the university of the universe," said CU President Bruce Benson, making the announcement Monday morning.

For the last five years scientists at CU's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics have been working on a proposal to send a spacecraft to Mars. They say the Lander and Rover missions showed clear evidence of liquid water that's no longer there.

"One of the major questions is why that change in environment, why that change in climate. The MAVEN mission is going to get directly at that," said Jakosky.

The university said it's the latest in a long journey of achievements for CU's space lab, already the largest university recipient of NASA research dollars in the nation.

"It also reinforces the space economy in the state of Colorado. Colorado jumped to No. 2 just surpassing Texas last year," said CU Chancellor G.P. "Bud" Peterson.

California is still the leader in the amount of total dollars spent in space economy.

Benson said the project will actively involve students.

"CU is not only leading the way, but we're preparing the next generation of leaders," Benson said.

The MAVEN spacecraft is scheduled to launch five years from Tuesday.

MAVEN will carry instruments to measure characteristics of Mars' atmospheric gases, upper atmosphere, solar wind, and ionosphere -- a layer of charged particles very high in the Martian atmosphere.

The CU lab built one set of instruments. The University of California at Berkeley built another with support from the CU lab and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The Goddard center is providing a third set.

Lockheed Martin, based in Littleton, will build the spacecraft and carry out mission operations. It will get $120 million of the contract while $60 million to $80 million will go to CU.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory will navigate the spacecraft.

CU will provide science operations and data packaging and the Goddard center will provide management and technical oversight.