{"id":190814,"date":"2025-12-18T23:42:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T23:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/190814\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T23:42:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T23:42:16","slug":"nasas-mars-spacecraft-spinning-helplessly-after-signal-lost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/190814\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s Mars Spacecraft Spinning Helplessly After Signal Lost"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, NASA revealed<\/a> that it had lost the signal from its MAVEN<\/a> (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) spacecraft, one of just seven Earthly probes currently orbiting Mars.<\/p>\n

The agency failed to reestablish contact with the spacecraft and hasn\u2019t received any signs of life since December 4, according to its latest update<\/a>. Worse yet, MAVEN appeared to be \u201crotating in an unexpected manner when it emerged from behind Mars,\u201d which could make future attempts to regain control far more difficult.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe team continues to analyze tracking data to understand the most likely scenarios leading to the loss of signal,\u201d NASA wrote. \u201cEfforts to reestablish contact with MAVEN also continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an unfortunate development for a probe that has allowed NASA to keep in touch with its rovers currently tracking across the Martian landscape. It has also provided invaluable data about the Red Planet\u2019s upper atmosphere and how Sun particles interact with it, key research that could shed light on how the planet became the hostile, barren wasteland it is today.<\/p>\n

Technically, MAVEN is \u201cstill alive and transmitting on the low-gain antenna!\u201d as Germany\u2019s arm of the amateur radio operators organization AMSAT wrote in a Wednesday update<\/a> on X. \u201cSignal is weak on our 20-meter dish Sternwarte Bochum, but MAVEN is currently in command lock with [Deep Space Network] in Madrid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFingers crossed that they will be able to fully recover the spacecraft,\u201d the organization added.<\/p>\n

Now that its signal has been lost, the NASA is \u201cworking to mitigate the effect of the MAVEN anomaly on surface operations for NASA\u2019s Perseverance and Curiosity rovers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately, there\u2019s backup. MAVEN is one of four orbiters that can relay communications to support the agency\u2019s operations on the planet\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n

\u201cNASA\u2019s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Odyssey, and ESA\u2019s (European Space Agency\u2019s) ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter all remain operational,\u201d the agency\u2019s update reads.<\/p>\n

As a result of MAVEN going dark, the agency has arranged to receive \u201cadditional passes from the remaining orbiters,\u201d and the rover teams have \u201cadjusted their daily planning activities to continue their science missions.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the first time MAVEN has gone dark. In 2022, scientists were forced to put the spacecraft into safe mode after key orientation sensors \u201cbegan exhibiting anomalous behavior,\u201d\u00a0per NASA<\/a> \u2014 but that time, they were able to recover the spacecraft after just under three months.<\/p>\n

More on MAVEN: A NASA Spacecraft Orbiting Mars Just Mysteriously Went Offline<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week, NASA revealed that it had lost the signal from its MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[119243,3323,111,139,69,147],"class_list":["post-190814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-mars-atmosphere","tag-nasa","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}