NASA Finally Admits Its MAVEN Mars Orbiter Is Dead

NASA scientists worked hard to reestablish contact, but the probe is gone for good.Credit: NASA

On Wednesday, NASA officially confirmed what we'd been hoping wasn't true: The MAVEN Mars mission is officially dead. It's not a surprising announcement, since the probe (fully named the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission) had been out of contact since December, but many had hoped for a miracle to bring the satellite back to life.

Instead, we now know that the 11 years of data MAVEN produced is the only data we'll ever get from it.

MAVEN was technically supposed to last a mere two years, with its initial operations planned to end in 2015. But it ended up orbiting for more than a decade. This is typical, as NASA usually picks relatively short proposed lifetimes and then massively exceeds them.

It's a good public relations strategy, and proof that the mission basically justified...

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