When the orbit of NASA’s Mars Ambiance and Unstable EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft took it behind the Pink Planet on December sixth, floor controllers anticipated a brief lack of sign (LoS). Sadly, the Deep Area Community hasn’t heard from the science orbiter since. Engineers are presently attempting to troubleshoot this situation, however with out a signal of life from the stricken spacecraft, there are valuable few choices.
As famous by [Stephen Clark] over at ArsTechnica this is a fairly large deal. Though MAVEN was launched in November of 2013, it’s a spring hen in comparison with the opposite Mars orbiters. The 2 different US orbiters: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and Mars Odyssey, are considerably older by round a decade. Of the 2 ESA orbiters, Mars Categorical and ExoMars, the latter is pretty new (2016) and will a minimum of be a partial backup for MAVEN’s communication relay performance with the ground-based items, specifically the 2 energetic rovers. ExoMars has a much less very best orbit for big information transfers, which might hamper scientific analysis.
With neither the Chinese language nor UAE orbiters able to serving as a relay, this places the burden on a possible alternative orbiter, such because the prompt Mars Telecommunications Orbiter, which was cancelled in 2005. Even when contact with MAVEN is restored, it might solely have gasoline for just a few extra years. This makes a alternative important if we want to hold doing ground-based science missions on Mars, in addition to any potential manned missions.
