NASA says efforts to rescue the MAVEN Mars Orbiter are underway after the spacecraft unexpectedly went offline earlier this month. In a statement released on Monday, the agency said that attempts to reestablish communications have been unsuccessful so far.
Last week, it was revealed that MAVEN went off grid after it emerged from behind Mars on December 6. On the same day, mission team received fragment of a tracking data which suggested that the spacecraft is behaving abnormally.
“Analysis of that signal suggests that the MAVEN spacecraft was rotating in an unexpected manner when it emerged from behind Mars. Further, the frequency of the tracking signal suggests MAVEN’s orbit trajectory may have changed,” NASA stated. “The team continues to analyze tracking data to understand the most likely scenarios leading to the loss of signal. Efforts to reestablish contact with MAVEN also continue.”
NASA exchanges signal with MAVEN using the Deep Space Network which is an array of giant radio antennas in California (US), Canberra (Australia) and Madrid (Spain). Launched in November 2013, MAVEN orbits Mars in a highly elliptical orbit of 4500X150 km. It was recently used to photograph the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it made a close pass from Mars.
Apart from its primary objective of studying the Martian atmosphere and climate, it also relays data from two NASA rovers – Perseverance and Curiosity. Three other orbiters – Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Odyssey and the European Space Agency’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter – serve the same purpose and NASA might use them until MAVEN comes online.
“NASA is also working to mitigate the effect of the MAVEN anomaly on surface operations for NASA’s Perseverance and Curiosity rovers,” the agency said adding that it “is arranging additional passes from the remaining orbiters, and the Perseverance and Curiosity teams have adjusted their daily planning activities to continue their science missions.”
The MAVEN Mars mission
The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN or MAVEN orbiter was launched as the first mission to understand the Martian atmosphere. It is designed to investigate three primary questions regarding the current state of the upper Martian atmosphere, how gases escape from it and how much of these gases have been lost over time.
In order to answer these questions, MAVEN is determining the structure and composition of the Martian atmosphere including the clouds and the physical and chemical processes that control the loss of gases using a suite of nine instruments.
Planned for just one year of primary science mission, MAVEN was in its 11th year of operations since it entered Mars orbit in 2014. However, the orbiter seems to be wearing out as the years pass.
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