Ahh... It Was Well-Past Its NASA-Rated Engineering Life-Span, At Mars... But Would Be An Important Loss (If Permanent)...

Some truly regular readers may recall that about eight years ago, the team at NASA | JPL burned the engines for a bit, to lift Maven to an orbit that would be safely above the tiny moon Phobos' orbital path. . . and that went quite smoothly. The craft. . . sailed onward.

It is (I suppose) possible that it was struck by an entirely new space rock (too small to see, from 40 million miles off), whilst traversing the dark side (relative to our radio signals) of Mars, in early December of 2025. NASA engineers were never able to re-acquire a signal [after it peeked out from sailing behind Barsoom, this last time]. Maybe the circuits just succumbed to space radiation. We may never know. But here's to hopin' this twisty lil' guy wakes up, and dials home, again:

. . .NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) spacecraft, in orbit around Mars, experienced a loss of signal with ground stations on Earth on Dec. 6. Telemetry from MAVEN had showed all subsystems working normally before it orbited behind the Red Planet. After the spacecraft emerged from behind Mars, NASA’s Deep Space Network did not observe a signal.

The spacecraft and operations teams are investigating the anomaly to address the situation. More information will be shared once it becomes available.

The MAVEN spacecraft launched in November 2013 and entered Mars’ orbit in September 2014. The mission’s goal is to explore the planet’s upper atmosphere, ionosphere, and interactions with the Sun and solar wind to explore the loss of the Martian atmosphere to space. Understanding atmospheric loss gives scientists insight into the history of the Red Planet’s atmosphere and climate, liquid water, and planetary habitability. The spacecraft also serves as a communications relay station for rovers on the Martian surface. Last year, MAVEN celebrated its 10th anniversary in orbit at Mars. . . .

We do use three other spacecraft for relay of comms, from Mars -- so this is/was a redundant capability -- but it still will be missed, as it reduces the data speeds and increases latency, for commands, at various points in the orbital path -- of Barsoom. Keep a good thought, will you?

नमस्ते