
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA has lost contact with a spacecraft that has orbited Mars for more than a decade.
Maven abruptly stopped communicating to ground stations over the weekend. NASA said this week that it was working fine before it went behind the red planet. When it reappeared, there was only silence.
Launched in 2013, Maven began studying the upper Martian atmosphere and its interaction with the solar wind once reaching the red planet the following year. Scientists ended up blaming the sun for Mars losing most of its atmosphere to space over the eons, turning it from wet and warm to the dry and cold world it is today.
Maven also has served as a communication relay for NASA’s two Mars rovers, Curiosity and Perseverance.
Engineering investigations are underway, according to NASA.
NASA has two other spacecraft around Mars that are still active: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, launched in 2005, and Mars Odyssey, launched in 2001.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
LATEST POSTS
- 1
The Solution to Ecological Protection: Saving Nature for People in the future - 2
4 Masked Men Steal Renoir, Matisse and Cézanne Paintings Worth Over $10 Million in 3-Minute Heist - 3
Vote in favor of your Favored kind of pasta - 4
'Wicked: For Good' was filmed at this surreal National Park in Egypt - 5
Orcas seen hunting great white sharks to eat their livers in drone footage recorded in Mexico
Coalition led by Iraqi PM al-Sudani wins parliamentary elections
The many ways that baking is winter therapy. With a delicious ending
Jillian Michaels put me at the center of a body positivity debate. She's not entirely wrong about obesity.
It May Take a Year to Restore Abu Dhabi Aluminum Output, EGA Says
An Excursion Through Renowned Western Network programs
Artemis II astronauts arrive at Florida launch site for first moon trip in 53 years
The Benefits of Effective money management for Your Youngsters' Future Monetary Prosperity
Monetary Security: Building Serious areas of strength for an Establishment
The Best 15 Applications for Efficiency and Association












