NASA declares its Mars Maven spacecraft dead after six months of silence

Images of Mars taken by NASA’s Maven spacecraft that’s been orbiting the red planet since 2014. Maven is no more, NASA just declared it dead.

This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here .

After six months of radio silence, NASA’s Maven spacecraft around Mars has been declared dead.

The space agency confirmed Wednesday that the mission had ended after more than a decade of observations.

“The team really did experience the loss of a loved one with the end of the mission here,” said NASA project manager Mike Moreau.

Advertisement

Launched in 2013 to study the red planet’s atmosphere from orbit, Maven mysteriously fell silent in early December after passing behind Mars. Data indicated the spacecraft went into a fast spin, which disrupted its orbit and drained the onboard batteries.

A review board convened by NASA earlier this year concluded that the spacecraft is useless and unrecoverable. It’s expected to remain in orbit for another 50 to 100 years before crashing into the planet, posing no problem for other spacecraft until then. An investigation continues into what caused the problem.

Besides studying Martian weather and observing a stray interstellar comet last year, Maven helped relay information from NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance rovers on the surface. NASA officials said four other spacecraft around Mars — two U.S. and two European satellites — will pick up the slack, with no rover science lost.

Advertisement

“The team is certainly broken up about this, but at the same time we are incredibly proud of the science we’ve accomplished over the last decade,” said Maven’s lead scientist, Shannon Curry of the University of Colorado Boulder.

The spacecraft advanced scientists’ understanding of the Martian atmosphere and evolution, Curry said.

Dunn writes for the Associated Press.