NASA ends MAVEN Mars orbiter mission after December communication failure

NASA has officially concluded a Mars mission that has been out of contact for six months, while investigations into the spacecraft’s unexpected failure continue. 

On June 3, NASA announced that the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission would come to an end after a review board determined that the orbiter was in an unrecoverable state following a December anomaly.

Controllers last received a signal from MAVEN on December 6, when the spacecraft was functioning normally as it passed behind Mars. However, when it reemerged about 30 minutes later, NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) was unable to detect any transmissions.

Efforts to restore contact using the DSN and the Green Bank Observatory radio telescope were unsuccessful. Nevertheless, investigators did manage to recover a brief telemetry signal from a radio science experiment shortly after communication was lost.

“That data has been very helpful to the anomaly review team,” said Mike Moreau, MAVEN project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Based on that data, investigators concluded the spacecraft was rotating at an unexpected 2.7 revolutions per minute. This unintended rotation deprived the spacecraft of solar power, draining its batteries over several hours and rendering it unrecoverable.

While the exact root cause remains uncertain, a final report is envisioned within a couple of months.

Launched in November 2013, MAVEN entered Mars’ orbit in September 2014 to explore the planet’s upper atmosphere and its interaction with solar wind.

“We now have a better understanding of atmospheric escape at Mars than at any other planet,” noted Shannon Curry, MAVEN’s principal investigator.

Beyond its contributions to atmospheric research, MAVEN played a crucial role as a communications relay, responsible for 18 percent of all data transmitted from Mars surface missions.

Even after its loss, NASA and the European Space Agency continue to rely on four other orbiters for the Mars Relay Network. Although officials have noted a slight delay in data transmission, the network remains robust and reliable.

The loss underscores the urgency of NASA’s upcoming Mars Telecommunications Network (MTN) mission, which recently received $700 million in funding to launch a dedicated communications hub by 2028.

MAVEN is expected to remain in orbit for 50 to 100 years before reentering the Martian atmosphere.