NASA’s Maven spacecraft around Mars has been declared dead. After six months of radio silence.
The space agency confirmed that the mission had ended after more than a decade of observations. 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 unable to be recovered. It’s expected to remain in orbit for another 50 to 100 years before crashing into the planet, posing no issue to other spacecraft until then.
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.
Maven’s lead scientist, Shannon Curry of the University of Colorado Boulder, said the spacecraft made a number of “amazing discoveries.”