A Vital NASA Mars Orbiter Has Gone Dark

NASA has lost the signal from a Martian probe that also serves as a communications relay for the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers on the surface of the Red Planet.

The MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) spacecraft was operating normally on December 6 when its orbit led it behind Mars. When the probe reappeared in front of the planet, NASA was not able to reestablish contact, the agency revealed in an update yesterday.

“The spacecraft and operations teams are investigating the anomaly to address the situation,†NASA wrote. “More information will be shared once it becomes available.â€

How’s the air there?

MAVEN launched in November 2013 and entered its orbit around Mars less than a year later. The mission has been probing the planet’s atmosphere for clues about why so much has been lost to space over time, helping paint a better picture of the planet’s possible habitability in the past.

This isn’t the first time MAVEN has gone silent. Shortly after arriving in Mars orbit and switching on its science instruments, the spacecraft experienced a glitch that forced it to shut down for nearly a week. In 2022, the spacecraft entered a dreaded safe mode due to an issue with its Inertial Measurement Units (which measure the spacecraft’s motion to determine its position in space). NASA engineers were able to resolve the issue by uploading new software to the spacecraft.

More recently, the spacecraft collected imagery of 3I/ATLAS, the third interstellar object astronomers have detected passing through our solar system. MAVEN’s unique sensors are expected to provide clues as to the chemical make-up of the object.

Phone home

MAVEN also serves as a communications relay for NASA’s Martian rovers, gathering data from rovers and landers on the surface of Mars and beaming it to the Deep Space Network on Earth.

The spacecraft has enough fuel to keep it running until 2030. The mission, however, faces possible cancellation under NASA’s proposed budget for the upcoming year. NASA has extended MAVEN’s mission duration on five different occasions, but the current administration’s 2026 budget proposal called for the termination of missions that have been running past their original timelines.

Although the White House is keen on advancing missions to Mars, that cancellation list includes three of the five orbiters that make up the Mars Relay Network. Without MAVEN and its orbiting siblings, communication to Mars could be limited. Earlier this year, Congress appropriated $700 million to fund a new Mars telecommunications orbiter, but NASA has yet to reveal its plans to execute the project.