{"id":1003628,"date":"2026-06-03T23:29:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T23:29:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1003628\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T23:29:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T23:29:18","slug":"nasa-declares-mars-spacecraft-dead-after-it-spins-out-of-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1003628\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA Declares Mars Spacecraft Dead After It Spins Out Of Control"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mars<\/p>\n

NASA has ended its MAVEN mission after losing contact with the spacecraft after an 11-year exploration of Mars\u2019 atmosphere and climate.<\/p>\n

getty<\/p>\n

NASA has officially concluded its MAVEN mission after more than 11 years orbiting Mars, marking the end of a groundbreaking effort to understand how the Red Planet lost much of its atmosphere. The space agency announced on Wednesday, June 3, that recovery efforts following an unexpected loss of contact with the spacecraft in December were unsuccessful, and that MAVEN \u2014 which stands for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution \u2014 is no longer capable of carrying out its scientific or communications duties.<\/p>\n

One of MAVEN\u2019s final acts was to image 3I\/ATLAS<\/a>, the third interstellar object discovered in the solar system.<\/p>\n

What Was MAVEN?<\/p>\n

Launched on Nov. 18, 2013, on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, MAVEN arrived at Mars on Sept. 22, 2014. MAVEN was the first mission dedicated to studying the planet\u2019s upper atmosphere and its evolution. Originally designed for a one-year mission, the spacecraft operated for more than a decade beyond its planned lifespan.<\/p>\n

The purple color shows auroras across Mars’ nightside as detected by the Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph instrument aboard NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) orbiter.<\/p>\n

NASA\/University of Colorado\/LASPMAVEN Loses Contact With Earth<\/p>\n

MAVEN lost contact with Earth on Dec. 6, 2025, and NASA engineers have been unable to contact it since. The spacecraft failed to reestablish communication when it passed behind Mars. According to the agency, telemetry received before the event showed all systems functioning normally. However, subsequent analysis revealed that the spacecraft entered safe mode and began rotating at an unusually high rate as it came back into Earth’s view. NASA eventually concluded that the excessive rotation likely drained MAVEN\u2019s batteries, causing the communications system to lose power.<\/p>\n

MAVEN\u2019s Martian Climate Studies<\/p>\n

MAVEN\u2019s observations gave scientists new ways to understand how the solar wind and space weather stripped away the planet\u2019s atmosphere over billions of years \u2014 transforming Mars from a potentially habitable world into the cold, dry planet seen today. It also revealed that its atmosphere was eroded more quickly during intense solar storms.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe MAVEN mission has truly advanced our understanding of the Martian atmosphere and evolution,\u201d said<\/a> Shannon Curry, MAVEN\u2019s principal investigator and a researcher at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder. \u201cOur science team is exceptionally proud of all of these amazing discoveries.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, or MAVEN, spacecraft before its encapsulation inside its payload fairing in 2013. (Photo by: HUM Images\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Hum Images\/Universal Images Group via Getty ImagesAurora On Mars<\/p>\n

Among MAVEN\u2019s most notable achievements was the discovery of new types of Martian auroras. Unlike Earth\u2019s proton auroras, which occur mainly near the poles, Mars experiences these atmospheric light displays across much of the planet. MAVEN also studied the effects of a planet-wide dust storm in 2018, confirming that such events can push water vapor higher into the atmosphere and accelerate the loss of water to space.<\/p>\n

MAVEN\u2019s Legacy<\/p>\n

The spacecraft\u2019s insights will also help future human missions to Mars. \u201cThe science MAVEN has given us is key to informing what kind of radiation protection and safety measures we must take before sending humans to Mars,\u201d said Louise Prockter, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. \u201cThe data collected from MAVEN will continue to provide valuable insight into Mars for decades to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

It also played a crucial role in NASA\u2019s Mars Relay Network, transmitting data from missions on the surface \u2014 such as NASA\u2019s Curiosity and Perseverance rovers \u2014 back to Earth.<\/p>\n

Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASA has ended its MAVEN mission after losing contact with the spacecraft after an 11-year exploration of Mars\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1003629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3844],"tags":[278307,278306,790,196291,874,278303,278304,70,413,16,15,278305],"class_list":["post-1003628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-is-mars-older-than-earth","tag-is-maven-still-working","tag-mars","tag-maven","tag-nasa","tag-nasa-loses-spacecraft","tag-nasa-maven","tag-science","tag-space","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-what-is-maven"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116688780488805417","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1003628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1003629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1003628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1003628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1003628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}