NASA Fears Mars Imager Probe MAVEN May Be Lost

NASA Fears Mars Imager Probe MAVEN May Be Lost NASA is preparing for the likely loss of a long-running Mars orbiter after more than a month without contact. The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution spacecraft, known as MAVEN, last communicated with Earth on December 6 while passing behind Mars. That loss of signal was initially expected, but contact did not resume when the spacecraft emerged from behind the planet. Subsequent analysis of limited tracking and telemetry data indicated the orbiter was tumbling and had departed its planned orbit. While not as well-known as other probes like the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter or the European Space Agency’s Mars Express , MAVEN has nevertheless has taken some fascinating scientific images and contributed to images captured by the Mars Perseverance Rover. Space News reports that Louise Prockter, director of NASA’s planetary science division, says that recovery prospects are dim. “So far, we have not been able to locate the spacecraft. It is no longer in its nominal orbit,” Prockter said on Tuesday during a meeting of the Small Bodies Assessment Group in Baltimore. “We will start looking again, but at this point it’s looking very unlikely that we are going to be able to recover the spacecraft.” NASA previously reported that an analysis of MAVEN suggested the spacecraft was “rotating in an unexpected manner when it emerged from behind Mars.” Engineers have been attempting to reconstruct a timeline of possible events and identify a root cause by examining tracking data collected during a December 6 radio science experiment. Multiple attempts to locate the spacecraft have failed. NASA used the Deep Space Network’s global array of radio antennas to send commands and listen for a response, without success. The agency even tried to use the Curiosity rover to get an image of MAVEN when it was expected to pass overhead. No spacecraft was detected, but there is a possibility that MAVEN has deviated from its expected trajectory. Launched in 2013 and in orbit since 2014, MAVEN was originally designed for a two-year mission to study Mars’ upper atmosphere and its interaction with the solar wind. The spacecraft exceeded its primary objectives and continued operating for more than a decade, providing data on how Mars lost much of its atmosphere over billions of years. It has also served as a communications relay for surface missions for the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers. Image credits: NASA

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