After six months of unexplained silence from its pioneering Martian orbiter, NASA announced this Wednesday that it is formally bringing the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission to a close. Over its 11 years of unplanned extended operations, the probe rewrote scientific understanding of the Red Planet, leaving a legacy that will shape planetary research for decades to come.
Launched with an initial projected lifespan of just one to two years, MAVEN slipped into orbit around Mars in September 2014, tasked with answering a longstanding cosmic question: how and why Mars lost most of its thick early atmosphere, transforming from a warm, wet world capable of hosting liquid water on its surface into the cold, arid desert we see today. It continued to beam back invaluable data and support surface operations far longer than mission planners ever dared to hope, until contact was abruptly lost with the spacecraft in December 2024.
Though NASA confirms MAVEN is believed to still remain in a stable orbit around Mars, repeated attempts to reestablish contact over the past six months have gone unanswered. The agency has officially acknowledged the loss of the craft, though it will launch a full formal review to pinpoint the root cause of the communications failure, according to statements released Wednesday.
For scientists who spent years working on the mission, MAVEN’s contributions extend far beyond its original mandate. Shannon Curry, an astrophysics professor and key MAVEN mission researcher, called it “the best Mars mission ever” in comments to reporters Wednesday. The probe’s measurements gave planetary scientists an unprecedented look at atmospheric escape—the process through which gases in a planet’s atmosphere leak out into interplanetary space. Currey noted that “We now have a better understanding of atmospheric escape at Mars than at any other planet, including Earth.” This body of data has turned Mars into an unparalleled natural laboratory for studying atmospheric evolution on rocky planets throughout the solar system and beyond, she added.
Tiffany Morgan, head of NASA’s exploration programs, echoed that praise, emphasizing that MAVEN “profoundly advanced our understanding of Mars’s atmosphere, climate history, and habitability.” Beyond its core scientific work, MAVEN filled a critical secondary role: it served as a reliable communications relay, relaying data and commands between Earth and NASA’s fleet of rovers and landers operating on the Martian surface. With MAVEN now offline, that responsibility will be transitioned to other operational orbiters currently circling the Red Planet to maintain uninterrupted contact with surface missions.