NASA has officially announced the end of the MAVEN mission after no signals were received from the spacecraft in Mars orbit for six months. The space agency confirmed the conclusion of the mission, which had been conducting observations for over a decade.
elchi reports that NASA Project Manager Mike Moreau stated his team feels as if they have lost a close relative with the end of the mission.
Launched in 2013 to study the Red Planet’s atmosphere from orbit, MAVEN went silent after passing behind Mars last December. Data indicates that the spacecraft began spinning rapidly, lost its orbit, and depleted its batteries.
Earlier this year, a team formed by NASA concluded that the spacecraft had become irreparable and ceased operations. The debris is expected to remain in orbit for another 50-100 years before crashing into the planet. While it is not expected to pose a risk to other spacecraft, an investigation into the exact cause of the malfunction is ongoing.
MAVEN has made significant scientific discoveries
Studying weather events on Mars, MAVEN observed a comet from outside the system last year. By capturing images of bright auroras that suddenly appeared on Mars during a solar storm in September 2017, the spacecraft also made significant contributions to the understanding of the planet’s atmospheric evolution.
In addition to its orbital missions, MAVEN provided communication support to relay data from the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers on the Martian surface to Earth.
Shannon Curry, MAVEN’s principal scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder, stated that they are proud of the contributions the spacecraft has made to the scientific world. NASA officials stated that four other US and European satellites in Mars orbit will take over communication support, so there will be no data loss in the rovers’ work on the surface.
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