"One of NASA's workhorse spacecraft in orbit around Mars has fallen silent, leaving agency personnel scrambling to troubleshoot the issue. The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission launched in November 2013 and has been operating at the Red Planet since September 2014. Like many NASA missions, MAVEN has lasted well beyond its original design lifetime, which was one year."
"But on December 6 something apparently went wrong while the spacecraft was on the far side of Mars, the side of the planet that faces away from Earth. Telemetry from MAVEN had showed all subsystems working normally before it orbited behind the Red Planet, wrote NASA officials in a statement posted on December 9. After the spacecraft emerged from behind Mars, NASA's Deep Space Network did not observe a signal."
MAVEN, launched in November 2013 and operating at Mars since September 2014, exceeded its original one-year design lifetime. The spacecraft fell silent after passing behind Mars on December 6. Telemetry before the occultation indicated all subsystems functioning normally. After reemergence, NASA's Deep Space Network detected no signal. MAVEN's primary mission is to study the Martian atmosphere and its interaction with the solar wind. The spacecraft also serves as one of several communications relays for surface missions such as Curiosity and Perseverance, alongside ESA's Trace Gas Orbiter, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, 2001 Mars Odyssey, and Mars Express as a backup.
Read at www.scientificamerican.com
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