10 Years at Mars: NASA Fights to Save Silent MAVEN Probe
NASA has lost contact with its MAVEN Mars orbiter after 10 years of discoveries. Engineers fear a spin anomaly as the Mars orbiter remains silent.
NASA engineers are racing against time as one of the agency’s most important Mars missions remains eerily silent.
For nearly a month, NASA has been unable to communicate with the MAVEN spacecraft, a Mars orbiter that has played a critical role in understanding how the Red Planet lost its atmosphere—and its potential for life.
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What Went Wrong
Contact with MAVEN was lost on December 6, during what should have been a routine communications blackout as the spacecraft passed behind Mars. When the probe failed to reappear on NASA’s radar, mission controllers knew something was wrong.
Fragments of tracking data later recovered suggest the spacecraft may have been spinning uncontrollably, an anomaly that could prevent its antenna from pointing toward Earth.
A Forced Waiting Game
NASA’s efforts to revive the spacecraft are now on hold until January 16, when Earth and Mars realign after being on opposite sides of the sun—a period that makes communication impossible due to intense solar interference.
During the blackout, engineers have continued sending commands through NASA’s Deep Space Network, while analyzing every bit of recovered data to reconstruct what may have caused the failure.
A Mission That Changed Mars Science
Launched in 2013 and arriving at Mars in 2014, MAVEN was designed to last just two years. Instead, it operated for over a decade, becoming one of NASA’s most valuable Mars orbiters.
The spacecraft helped scientists understand how solar radiation stripped Mars of its atmosphere, transforming it from a potentially habitable world with liquid water into the cold, dry planet we see today.
MAVEN also served as a communications relay for NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance rovers, making its potential loss a significant blow to ongoing Mars exploration.
Last-Ditch Efforts
NASA even attempted to visually locate MAVEN using cameras aboard the Curiosity rover, though no confirmation has been announced.
Despite dwindling hope, mission teams say they are not giving up.
After more than 10 years of groundbreaking discoveries, MAVEN’s fate now hangs in the balance. Whether the spacecraft can be revived—or becomes another silent sentinel orbiting Mars—could soon be decided when NASA makes its next attempt to call it home.
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