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.
The most effective method to Apply Antiquated Ways of thinking in Current Brain science Practices- 7 Methods for further developing Rest Quality
- One perk to marrying Richard Marx later in life? 'We don't have time' for stupid arguments, says Daisy Fuentes.
- Watch SpaceX launch powerful ocean-mapping satellite for Europe and NASA early Nov. 17
- Europe pledges over €15bn for clean energy for Africa
- Solar storms have influenced our history – an environmental historian explains how they could also threaten our future
- RFK Jr. guts the US childhood vaccine schedule despite its decades-long safety record
- Get To Be familiar with The Historical backdrop Of Western Medication
- The most effective method to Shake Hands During a Pandemic: Wellbeing Tips and Behavior
