NASA
Maven probe orbits Mars
It was a sudden connection failure. Crucial observations of the atmosphere were interrupted and support for robotic missions was disrupted.
A Maven is a in the end which was launched by NASA in 2013. It is orbit Mars since 2014.
The priority was to investigate the upper atmosphere of Mars and understand the interaction of the Martian environment with the solar wind.
The researchers, thanks to this analysis, reinforced the hypothesis that the Sun played a decisive role in atmospheric erosion over billions of years.
Maven has also become essential for NASA operational infrastructure on Mars: it worked as a communications relay for the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers.
But last Tuesday, NASA lost contact with that probe.
It is a loss of communication considered grave; the Maven probe abruptly stopped responding last weekend, after disappearing behind Mars. There was no contact again.
All Maven systems were operating nominally prior to the outage.
The problem was, upon emerging from the occultation region – something common in probes that orbit Mars – the silence. There was no longer the radio signal that the control teams were waiting for.
NASA told , that it already has engineers carrying out a detailed investigation to determine the cause of the failure and try to reestablish contact with the probe. But he doesn’t know when communication will be restored.
But there are other probes orbiting Mars, working: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey.
