3 June 2026 year, NASA officially announced the completion of a significant space mission, which lasted over 11 years. The first priority of the program was to investigate why Mars, which once had a dense atmosphere and was habitable, turned into a dry and cold desert. The main tool of these studies was MAVEN spacecraft (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution), which revolved around Mars with 2014 year. The last signal from him came 6 December.
The special investigation commission found out, that MAVEN suddenly began to rotate around its own axis at a speed of approx 2,7 rpm, although this is not at all provided for by its design. Such atypical behavior led to a critically fast discharge of batteries and a complete loss of power to the communication system. By the end of 2025 year, the team made repeated attempts to restore contact. Specialists tried to forcibly reboot the on-board computer and involved powerful ground-based radio telescopes, but the effort proved futile. In the end, the commission came to a conclusion, that the probe is not recoverable. An official report on the root cause of this anomaly is expected later this year.
The MAVEN mission was the first, which specialized exclusively in the study of the Martian atmosphere. Thanks to the collected data, scientists were able to measure in detail the rate of leakage of Martian air into space. Вони також з’ясували, як сонячний вітер руйнує атмосферу планети. in addition, зонд зафіксував нові типи полярних сяйв на Марсі та зміг зробити унікальні знімки міжзоряної комети 3I/ATLAS.
Станом на сьогодні втрата зонда MAVEN ускладнює не лише збір нових наукових даних, а й зв’язок із марсоходами на поверхні планети, адже апарат слугував для них важливим ретранслятором. Simultaneously, за словами Тіффані Морган, директорки Програми дослідження Марса, цю прогалину компенсують інші орбітальні апарати NASA та Європейської космічної агенції,
хоч і з незначною затримкою.
Expected, що MAVEN залишатиметься на марсіанській орбіті ще від 50 to 100 years. Згодом його орбіта знизиться, і він згорить в атмосфері планети, яку так довго вивчав.
Source: https://www.nasa.gov