
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
Astronauts' brains change shape and position after time in space, study finds - 2
Massive supernova explosion may have created a binary black hole - 3
A Concise History Of The Entertainment world - 4
What loving-kindness meditation is and how to practice it in the new year - 5
Recalled "super greens" supplement linked to dozens of salmonella cases, CDC says
Scientists train to dive beneath polar ice as climate change warms the Arctic and Antarctica
January full moon wows skywatchers with a striking 'Wolf Supermoon' (photos)
Katz, IDF: We assassinated IRGC intelligence chief Majid Khademi
6 Famous kind of practice on the planet
The Fate of Mechanical technology: 5 Headways Forming Tomorrow
Fireball sightings are surging across the US — here's what's really going on
How to watch Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest: Start time, TV channel, performers and more
Here's how 'Bridgerton' fans can watch the first episode of Season 4 before its Netflix release later this month
Planet-eating stars hint at Earth's ultimate fate












