it lost contact with the spacecraft three days earlier<\/a> after MAVEN failed to resume communications following a pass behind Mars as viewed from Earth. At the time, the agency provided few details and did not indicate the problem extended beyond the spacecraft\u2019s communications systems.<\/p>\nIn a Dec. 15 update, NASA said it obtained a \u201cbrief fragment of tracking data\u201d from the spacecraft during a radio science experiment on Dec. 6, the day contact was lost. That data indicated the spacecraft was rotating and was not in its expected orbit.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnalysis of that signal suggests that the MAVEN spacecraft was rotating in an unexpected manner when it emerged from behind Mars,\u201d NASA said. \u201cFurther, the frequency of the tracking signal suggests MAVEN\u2019s orbital trajectory may have changed.\u201d<\/p>\n
NASA said it is evaluating the cause of the signal loss while continuing efforts to restore contact. One industry official, speaking on background, said NASA\u2019s description would be consistent with MAVEN experiencing an \u201cenergetic event,\u201d such as a ruptured fuel tank or propellant line, that could both spin the spacecraft and impart thrust, altering its orbit.<\/p>\n
NASA officials attending the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, a major Earth and space sciences conference, did not provide additional details about the spacecraft\u2019s condition. \u201cOur heart is deeply with the MAVEN team right now as they face their challenges and work through that,\u201d Jaime Favors, director of NASA\u2019s space weather program, said during a town hall at the conference Dec. 15.<\/p>\n
Recovery efforts will be complicated by an upcoming solar conjunction, when Mars passes behind the sun as viewed from Earth. That will limit radio communications with all spacecraft at Mars for a few weeks in January.<\/p>\n
MAVEN, short for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, launched in November 2013 and entered orbit around Mars in September 2014. Its primary science mission is to study the planet\u2019s upper atmosphere and its interactions with the solar wind, including how Mars\u2019 atmosphere escapes into space.<\/p>\n
The spacecraft has also served as a communications relay for the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers on the surface. NASA said in its latest statement that it will rely more heavily on Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the European Space Agency\u2019s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter to provide relay services while MAVEN remains unavailable.<\/p>\n
\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 New analysis suggests that problems with NASA\u2019s MAVEN Mars orbiter may be more serious than a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[61,60,89633,91,82,1935,247],"class_list":{"0":"post-194722","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-maven","11":"tag-nasa","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-sn","14":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}