About 18 Days Of "No Possible Contact", With MAVEN -- Out, ~80 Million Miles In The Night, At Barsoom -- Has Begun. Dim Prospects, For Any Future Recovery.

As of about lunch-time today, we cannot trust that any radio ping, fired from Earth, and aimed out toward where we think MAVEN might be, still circling Mars. . . will ever be received.

As the schematic at right shows, Mars is slipping behind the Sun, relative to Earth's vantage point. And that huge fiery ball blocks all line of sight communications -- including laser and radio transmissions.

In truth, it is unlikely we will ever hear from that orbiter again.

It likely was struck by a rogue space rock, on the backside of Mars around December 3, 2025. It is likely tumbling in an erratic fashion, and may be missing most of its solar array. So it may not even have power, any longer. We shall see. And yet, we shall keep a good thought.

Realistically, in any event -- come January 16, it is not likely that it will be able to reply to our contact-attempts. Here's that, as we had mentioned a few times over the holidays:

. . .Mars solar conjunction – a period when Mars and Earth are on opposite sides of the Sun – begins Monday, Dec. 29, and NASA will not have contact with any Mars missions until Friday, Jan. 16. Once the solar conjunction window is over, NASA plans to resume its efforts to reestablish communications with MAVEN. . . .

Onward, resolutely, just the same. Smile -- it was a great and long mission (wildly exceeding expectations) to be certain.

नमस्ते