NASA Faces Bleak Silence as MAVEN Goes Silent and May Never Return
On December 6, NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) spacecraft, which has been studying the Red Planet’s upper atmosphere for over a decade, mysteriously went offline. The spacecraft was expected to send telemetry back to Earth, signals that were never picked up by NASA’s Deep Space Network, a global system of massive radio antennas making up an interplanetary communications network. Less than a week later, NASA issued a new update, admitting that MAVEN appeared to be “rotating in an unexpected manner when it emerged from behind Mars.” Then, on December 23, the agency issued its last update, promising that it’s “continuing efforts to recontact” its lost spacecraft. But weeks later, things aren’t looking much better. As SpaceNews senior writer Jeff Foust pointed out, NASA planetary science division director Louise Prockter conceded during a Tuesday meeting that the agency is “very unlikely” to recover the MAVEN orbiter. Not all hope is lost. Mars’ solar conjunction, a weeks-long period when Mars and Earth are on opposite sides of the Sun, will end on January 16, which will give NASA a new opportunity to reestablish contact. In its latest December 23 update, NASA explained that the MAVEN team was attempting to “create a timeline of possible events and identify the likely root cause of the issue” by analyzing “tracking data fragments recovered from a December 6 radio science campaign.” NASA also leveraged the Mastcam instrument attached to its Curiosity rover to attempt to take a picture of MAVEN, but failed to detect the missing spacecraft. It’s a sad state of affairs, but fortunately there are three other spacecraft that can still relay communications between Mars missions and the Earth. A next-generation orbiter, dubbed Mars Telecommunications Orbiter, was also recently revived in president Donald Trump’s so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill” act — though it remains unclear when it will launch. For now, all we can hope is that NASA’s renewed efforts to make contact with MAVEN will prove successful once it emerges from behind Mars once again. But given Prockter’s latest comments, the situation isn’t looking promising. More on MAVEN: NASA’s Mars Spacecraft Spinning Helplessly After Signal Lost I’m a senior editor at Futurism, where I edit and write about NASA and the private space sector, as well as topics ranging from SETI and artificial intelligence to tech and medical policy.
In This Article:
- MAVEN Emerges From Behind Mars With An Unusual Spin
- NASA Says MAVEN Was Rotating in an Unexpected Manner Upon Emergence From Behind Mars
- Very Unlikely to Recover MAVEN, Says NASA Official
- Three Relays and a Revival: Mars Telecommunications Orbiter in Play
- Mastcam Attempts to Photograph MAVEN but Finds No Sign of the Missing Orbiter
MAVEN Emerges From Behind Mars With An Unusual Spin
On December 6, NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) spacecraft, which has been studying the Red Planet’s upper atmosphere for over a decade, mysteriously went offline. The spacecraft was expected to send telemetry back to Earth, signals that were never picked up by NASA’s Deep Space Network, a global system of massive radio antennas making up an interplanetary communications network. Less than a week later, NASA issued a new update, admitting that MAVEN appeared to be “rotating in an unexpected manner when it emerged from behind Mars.” The agency’s last update stated that it is “continuing efforts to recontact” its lost spacecraft. But weeks later, things aren’t looking much better. As SpaceNews senior writer Jeff Foust pointed out, NASA planetary science division director Louise Prockter conceded during a Tuesday meeting that the agency is “very unlikely” to recover the MAVEN orbiter. Not all hope is lost. Mars’ solar conjunction, a weeks-long period when Mars and Earth are on opposite sides of the Sun, will end on January 16, which will give NASA a new opportunity to reestablish contact. In its latest December 23 update, NASA explained that the MAVEN team was attempting to “create a timeline of possible events and identify the likely root cause of the issue” by analyzing “tracking data fragments recovered from a December 6 radio science campaign.” NASA also leveraged the Mastcam instrument attached to its Curiosity rover to attempt to take a picture of MAVEN, but failed to detect the missing spacecraft. It’s a sad state of affairs, but fortunately there are three other spacecraft that can still relay communications between Mars missions and the Earth. A next-generation orbiter, dubbed Mars Telecommunications Orbiter, was also recently revived in president Donald Trump’s so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill” act — though it remains unclear when it will launch. For now, all we can hope is that NASA’s renewed efforts to make contact with MAVEN will prove successful once it emerges from behind Mars once again. But given Prockter’s latest comments, the situation isn’t looking promising. More on MAVEN: NASA’s Mars Spacecraft Spinning Helplessly After Signal Lost I’m a senior editor at Futurism, where I edit and write about NASA and the private space sector, as well as topics ranging from SETI and artificial intelligence to tech and medical policy.
NASA Says MAVEN Was Rotating in an Unexpected Manner Upon Emergence From Behind Mars
The latest updates show NASA’s MAVEN team is pursuing a careful analysis to understand what happened after MAVEN went offline. In its latest December 23 update, NASA explained that the MAVEN team was attempting to “create a timeline of possible events and identify the likely root cause of the issue” by analyzing “tracking data fragments recovered from a December 6 radio science campaign.” They also noted that the Mastcam instrument attached to the Curiosity rover was used to attempt to take a picture of MAVEN, but failed to detect the missing spacecraft. NASA also noted that the solar conjunction will end on January 16, which will give NASA a new opportunity to reestablish contact with MAVEN. In the meantime, NASA highlighted that there are three other spacecraft that can still relay communications between Mars missions and the Earth. A next-generation orbiter, Mars Telecommunications Orbiter, was revived in the president’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” act, though it remains unclear when it will launch.
Very Unlikely to Recover MAVEN, Says NASA Official
SpaceNews senior writer Jeff Foust reported that NASA planetary science division director Louise Prockter conceded during a Tuesday meeting that the agency is “very unlikely” to recover the MAVEN orbiter. Not all hope is lost. Mars’ solar conjunction, a weeks-long period when Mars and Earth are on opposite sides of the Sun, will end on January 16, which will give NASA a new opportunity to reestablish contact. For now, NASA’s renewed efforts to make contact with MAVEN continue, but the outlook remains grim. I’m a senior editor at Futurism, where I edit and write about NASA and the private space sector, as well as topics ranging from SETI and artificial intelligence to tech and medical policy.
Three Relays and a Revival: Mars Telecommunications Orbiter in Play
Not all hope is lost. Mars’ solar conjunction, a weeks-long period when Mars and Earth are on opposite sides of the Sun, will end on January 16, which will give NASA a new opportunity to reestablish contact. In addition to MAVEN, three other spacecraft can still relay communications between Mars missions and the Earth. A next-generation orbiter, dubbed Mars Telecommunications Orbiter, was revived in the president’s so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill” act — though it remains unclear when it will launch. This means NASA may still recontact MAVEN if contact is reestablished when Mars and Earth come out of solar conjunction. Or, the agency could shift focus to other assets in the Mars network. For now, the team will keep analyzing the data and exploring options.
Mastcam Attempts to Photograph MAVEN but Finds No Sign of the Missing Orbiter
NASA also leveraged the Mastcam instrument attached to its Curiosity rover to attempt to take a picture of MAVEN, but failed to detect the missing spacecraft. The failure to spot MAVEN in a Mastcam image keeps the mystery alive and underscores the challenges of interplanetary reconnaissance when a spacecraft slips out of range behind a planet. For now, all eyes remain on Mars’ solar conjunction and the hope that the next window will offer another chance to reestablish contact. I’m a senior editor at Futurism, where I edit and write about NASA and the private space sector, as well as topics ranging from SETI and artificial intelligence to tech and medical policy.
