NASA's Mars spacecraft MAVEN is to be considered lost forever

With the Artemis program, recent focus has shifted to the Moon and future human missions. However, this program has an ultimate goal: to send humans to Mars, a task never attempted before and still decidedly complex (though not impossible). Currently, two rovers and several orbiters are active on the Red Planet, but one has stopped functioning. This is NASA MAVEN (Mars Atmospheric and Volatile EvolutioN).

According to the U.S. space agency, this Mars orbiter has completed its operational life after a malfunction was reported at the end of last year, with engineers attempting to regain control, but to no avail. The operational mission of NASA MAVEN has thus concluded after over 11 years in orbit around Mars. This is an important achievement considering that the main mission had a planned duration of one year.

Farewell to the NASA MAVEN spacecraft

NASA stated that the orbiter sent data for the last time on December 6, 2025, while it was hidden behind Mars, at which point there was a sudden loss of signal. A committee has been formed to try to understand how to recover the spacecraft, but no good news has come in this regard.

"The review committee has determined that the MAVEN spacecraft is not recoverable and is no longer capable of performing its scientific mission and data transmission, which is consistent with the findings of the dedicated mission team," reads the statement.

The reasons for the loss of NASA MAVEN are still under analysis. After the spacecraft re-emerged from behind the Red Planet, no clear signal was detected through the Deep Space Network (DSN); until that time, the systems were functioning perfectly. The only small portion of data concerning telemetry showed that the orbiter was in safe mode while spinning at a high rate. Due to this rotation, the solar panels could not recharge the batteries, leading to the signal loss.

By the end of the year, the most likely cause of the failure is expected to be established to take measures for future missions. One possibility is that there was an energetic event (explosion) from batteries or tanks that destroyed part of the spacecraft systems, rendering it inoperable. However, more precise information will be needed to truly understand what happened.

The importance of NASA MAVEN (Mars Atmospheric and Volatile EvolutioN) was not only related to collecting scientific information but also in connecting the rovers and landers on the surface of Mars with the DSN antennas. The launch took place on November 18, 2013, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station with an Atlas V01 rocket. Its dimensions were 11.4 x 2.29 x 3.47 meters with a 2-meter antenna for communication, carrying about 1.5 tons of propellant (hydrazine) and 65 kg of scientific instruments.