NASA's Maven Spacecraft Goes Silent After Decade of Orbiting Mars
In a surprising turn of events, NASA has lost contact with its Maven spacecraft, which has been orbiting the Red Planet for over a decade. The spacecraft, launched in 2013 and entering Martian orbit in 2014, was designed to study the upper atmosphere and its interaction with the solar wind.
Maven's abrupt silence was noticed on December 6, and since then, NASA engineers have been working tirelessly to establish communication again. However, so far, there has been no response from the spacecraft.
Scientists had previously attributed Mars' loss of most of its atmosphere to the sun, which led to the planet becoming a dry and cold world unlike it was in the past. The Maven mission aimed to shed more light on this phenomenon by studying the Martian upper atmosphere.
The spacecraft's silence also raises concerns about its continued functionality. NASA engineers are currently conducting engineering investigations to determine the cause of the issue.
While Maven is no longer communicating, two other NASA spacecraft, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey, continue to orbit Mars and gather valuable data about the planet. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured stunning images of Martian craters and cracks, including a recent image that resembles a teddy bear. Meanwhile, the Mars Odyssey holds the record for the longest continually active mission in orbit around a planet other than Earth.
The loss of contact with Maven is a setback for NASA's ongoing efforts to study Mars, but it also highlights the importance of the agency's continued exploration and research into the Red Planet.
In a surprising turn of events, NASA has lost contact with its Maven spacecraft, which has been orbiting the Red Planet for over a decade. The spacecraft, launched in 2013 and entering Martian orbit in 2014, was designed to study the upper atmosphere and its interaction with the solar wind.
Maven's abrupt silence was noticed on December 6, and since then, NASA engineers have been working tirelessly to establish communication again. However, so far, there has been no response from the spacecraft.
Scientists had previously attributed Mars' loss of most of its atmosphere to the sun, which led to the planet becoming a dry and cold world unlike it was in the past. The Maven mission aimed to shed more light on this phenomenon by studying the Martian upper atmosphere.
The spacecraft's silence also raises concerns about its continued functionality. NASA engineers are currently conducting engineering investigations to determine the cause of the issue.
While Maven is no longer communicating, two other NASA spacecraft, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey, continue to orbit Mars and gather valuable data about the planet. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured stunning images of Martian craters and cracks, including a recent image that resembles a teddy bear. Meanwhile, the Mars Odyssey holds the record for the longest continually active mission in orbit around a planet other than Earth.
The loss of contact with Maven is a setback for NASA's ongoing efforts to study Mars, but it also highlights the importance of the agency's continued exploration and research into the Red Planet.
A decade-long space mission goes silent? That's wild! I mean, I know NASA has been working on a ton of projects, but you'd think they'd be better prepared for this kind of thing...or at least have some sort of backup plan. 
The Red Planet is already so mysterious, and now this? It's like, the universe is just, like...playing a game of hide-and-seek with us. 
I need that in my life! Anyway, gotta stay hopeful for Maven's return...or maybe we'll just have to wait till the next big space mission to get our answers 
so u think nasa can just lose contact w/ their own spacecraft lol like we all know how reliable tech can be 
problems happen & u gotta have a plan B, right? this reminds me of when i had my laptop die on me in the middle of a presentation 
and now it's just... silent 
because, let's be real, maven's data is like, super valuable 
. and with the other two nasa spacecraft still going strong 
, i guess it's not all bad news? 
? anyway, here's to nasa being able to figure out the mystery and get maven back up and running soon 
!
after 11 years in orbit around Mars, can't believe they haven't been able to get a signal back yet... think about all the info they were collecting on the Martian upper atmosphere 
, that's like losing a super valuable tool for research. They should've kept it running longer, but I guess space stuff is unpredictable 
. The other two space crafts are still sending back awesome pics and data 
, at least Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter managed to take a cute teddy bear pic out of thin air 
, keep going NASA! 
, I mean, what can we learn from this? Was it solar flare or something else that went wrong? I hope they get Maven back online soon, those Martian craters are so cool 
but still, no comms from Maven? that's not good 
those pics of mars craters and teddy bear cracks are insane 
.
. Either way, it's a bummer because I was really interested in what it was going to learn about Mars' atmosphere 
i was so excited when i heard about its launch back in 2013 lol i remember my friends and me were all over youtube watching vids about space exploration like we were going to be astronauts too 
. don't wanna see those funds go down the drain 
. anyways, at least maven's not alone – those other two nasa spacecraft are still kicking 
And what about all those cool pics from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter? Are those still valid if Maven's not communicating with anyone? 
so maven just decided to take a nap in space lol, i guess it needed some downtime from all that atmosphere studying 
after 12 years in orbit around Mars... that's like, whoa! 
I'm kinda worried about what might have happened to it 
The scientists are scrambling to figure out what went down 
. Maybe this is just a minor setback 
, but I hope they can get Maven back up and running soon 
just heard about Maven space craft going silent after 10 yrs in orbit... that's wild. think its gotta be something with solar wind interaction or upper atmosphere conditions on mars... anyways, another setback for nasa but still so much cool stuff happening on the red planet 
like that teddy bear image from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter 
and now they're trying to figure out what went wrong... it's crazy because maven was up there for over a decade studying the martian upper atmosphere 
. nasa's gonna have to get creative and figure out what happened to it. hopefully they can recover some of that data before it's too late 
or those other two orbiters they mentioned