
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
Vote In favor of Your Favored Pet Consideration Administration - 2
Astronaut on ISS captures spectacular orbital video of zodiacal light, auroras and the Pleiades - 3
Get To Be familiar with The Historical backdrop Of Western Medication - 4
2024 Manual for Light Extravagance Room Feel: What's Moving - 5
Misjudged Objections For Solo Voyagers
Help Your Efficiency with These Work area Updates
A hunger for new experiences Narratives: Motivating Travel and Experience
Putting resources into Yourself: Self-awareness Techniques
Iran denies launching ballistic missiles towards Kurdistan region of Iraq
Congo declares its latest Ebola outbreak over, after 43 deaths
Vote In favor of Your Favored Kind Of Attire
Putin says Russian forces will seize capital of Zaporizhzhya
Looking for a great Thanksgiving side dish recipe? These are the crowd-pleasers the Yahoo team swears by.
Game theory explains why reasonable parents make vaccine choices that fuel outbreaks













