NASA loses contact with Maven – spacecraft orbiting Mars for more than a decade
a day ago
- #Spacecraft
- #NASA
- #Mars
- NASA lost contact with the Maven spacecraft orbiting Mars for over a decade.
- Maven stopped communicating after passing behind Mars; subsystems were normal before the incident.
- NASA is investigating the anomaly and working to re-establish communication.
- Maven, launched in 2013, studies Mars' upper atmosphere and its interaction with solar wind.
- The spacecraft helped explain Mars' atmospheric loss, transforming it from warm/wet to cold/dry.
- Maven also serves as a relay for NASA's Mars rovers, Curiosity and Perseverance.
- Two other active NASA spacecraft around Mars: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (2005) and Mars Odyssey (2001).