
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
Manual for Tracking down Spending plan Agreeable Travel Objections - 2
Mexico says a third of 130,000 missing people might be alive, fueling criticisms by families - 3
The most effective method to Alter Your Savvy Bed for A definitive Rest Insight - 4
'Here we go again': Businesses grapple with fuel costs - 5
Which Film Has the Incomparable Melodic Score?
Vote in favor of Your #1 BWM Vehicles
Russia accidentally destroys its only way of sending astronauts to space
What to know about cheese voluntarily recalled in 20 states
Computerized Moderation: Tracking down Equilibrium in the Advanced Age
Journey Lines for Each Explorer: Track down Your Ideal Journey
5 Language Learning Applications
When fake data is a good thing – how synthetic data trains AI to solve real problems
Air superiority and long-range strikes: what China's war games say about how it might assault Taiwan
Noctourism: the new safari travel trend that's changing the wildlife we can photograph in Africa













