NASA ends MAVEN Mars mission after loss of signal
NASA has officially decommissioned the MAVEN Mars mission after losing contact with the spacecraft in December. An investigation concluded that an anomaly caused the craft to rotate uncontrollably, draining its batteries and rendering it unrecoverable.
Why it matters
The loss of a long-running planetary mission highlights the inherent risks of space exploration and the importance of data archiving for future human missions to Mars.
NASA has ended its Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission after losing contact with the spacecraft in December, bringing to a close more than 11 years of operations in orbit around Mars.
The article provides a factual summary of a space agency's mission status report.
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