the sun itself is actively stripping away atmospheres
For thirteen years, a small spacecraft named MAVEN traced the invisible wound at the heart of Mars — the slow, solar-driven loss of the atmosphere that may have ended any chance of life on that world. On December 6, as it passed behind the planet in a routine arc, it fell silent and never spoke again. NASA has now formally closed the mission, accepting that what was meant to last one year instead lasted a generation of inquiry. MAVEN will drift in orbit for perhaps a century more, a quiet monument above a planet it helped us understand.
- A spacecraft that outlived its mandate by twelve years went silent in an instant — no warning, no final transmission, just an orbit that never returned a signal.
- Engineers and a NASA review board are still piecing together what failed, as thirteen years of wear in the brutal environment of deep space left few certainties.
- The loss ripples beyond one probe: MAVEN was also a communications relay for the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers, threading Mars' surface missions back to Earth.
- NASA has formally declared the mission unrecoverable, closing a chapter that rewrote our understanding of how a once-wet, potentially life-bearing world became a frozen desert.
- MAVEN will haunt Mars orbit for 50 to 100 years before falling to the surface — silent, inert, but carrying a decade of irreplaceable atmospheric data already safely home.
On December 6, NASA lost contact with MAVEN as the spacecraft passed behind Mars on a routine orbital arc. The signal that should have returned never did. Six months later, the agency formally declared the mission over — the probe had entered what engineers call an unrecoverable state.
MAVEN, which stands for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, launched in 2013 for a planned one-year mission. It lasted thirteen. Orbiting in a highly elliptical path that brought it as close as 180 kilometers to the Martian surface, it spent over a decade measuring how the planet's atmosphere is being steadily stripped away by solar winds and charged particle storms. That work carries deep significance: three billion years ago, Mars had a thicker atmosphere and liquid water, conditions that may have supported life. Understanding its atmospheric collapse is understanding how a habitable world became barren.
Among its most striking achievements, MAVEN detected multiple types of auroras in the Martian sky and, working alongside the Perseverance rover, captured the first visible-light image of a Martian aurora — the sky glowing faintly green. It also served as a communications relay, carrying data from both Curiosity and Perseverance back to Earth.
What exactly caused the December failure remains under investigation. The spacecraft had aged considerably, and thirteen years in the harsh radiation environment of space leaves its mark. NASA has confirmed no salvage attempt will be made. MAVEN will remain in orbit for the next 50 to 100 years, slowly descending until it finally meets the surface of the world it spent so long studying. The data it gathered will continue to be analyzed for years — a legacy that outlasts the machine itself.
On December 6, NASA lost contact with MAVEN, the spacecraft that had been circling Mars since 2014, studying how the planet's atmosphere was being stripped away by the sun. Six months later, in early June, the space agency formally announced the mission was over. The probe had entered what engineers call an unrecoverable state—a clinical way of saying it would never phone home again.
MAVEN stands for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, and it was NASA's first spacecraft designed specifically to understand the Martian sky. When it launched in 2013, the mission was planned to last one year. It lasted thirteen. For more than a decade, MAVEN orbited Mars in a highly elliptical path, swooping as close as 180 to 220 kilometers above the surface and swinging out to 4,000 kilometers at its farthest point. It relayed data from the rovers Curiosity and Perseverance back to Earth, but its real work was watching the atmosphere itself—measuring how fast it was disappearing into space, and why.
This matters because Mars was not always the barren, frozen desert we see today. Three billion years ago, the planet had a thicker atmosphere and liquid water flowing across its surface. The conditions might have supported microbial life. Understanding what happened to that atmosphere is understanding how a potentially habitable world became inhospitable. MAVEN provided crucial answers. It discovered that atmospheric loss accelerates dramatically during space weather events—the violent eruptions of charged particles that the sun hurls outward in solar storms. The spacecraft detected several types of auroras flickering in the Martian sky when these energetic particles collided with the upper atmosphere. Working alongside Perseverance, MAVEN even captured the first visible-light image of a Martian aurora, the sky glowing softly green.
When MAVEN passed behind Mars on December 6, as it does regularly during its orbit, something went wrong. The signal that should have returned when the spacecraft emerged from behind the planet never came. A NASA review board is still investigating what caused the failure. The spacecraft had been aging—thirteen years in the harsh environment of space takes a toll—but the exact sequence of events remains unclear.
NASA officials confirmed this week that MAVEN will not be salvaged or brought back. Instead, it will remain in orbit around Mars for the next 50 to 100 years, gradually losing altitude until it eventually falls to the surface. The agency emphasized that the dead spacecraft poses no threat to any of its other active missions on or around Mars. For now, MAVEN's work is done. The data it collected will be analyzed for years to come, but the probe itself has become just another piece of hardware drifting silently above a world that, billions of years ago, might have been home to life.
Citas Notables
MAVEN learned that the erosion of the Martian atmosphere increases dramatically during space weather events—when solar storms erupt off the sun's surface.— NASA officials
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why does it matter that we understand how Mars lost its atmosphere? It's already gone.
Because it tells us what happens to planets over geological time. If we want to know whether Mars could have harbored life, or whether Earth might face similar processes, we need to understand the mechanism. MAVEN showed us that the sun itself is the culprit—it's actively stripping away atmospheres.
So MAVEN was watching a crime in slow motion.
Exactly. And it found that the crime accelerates during solar storms. That's not obvious. You have to measure it carefully over years.
Thirteen years is a long time for a one-year mission. What kept it going?
Good engineering, mostly. And the science was still valuable. Every year MAVEN stayed alive, it gathered more data about seasonal changes, about how the atmosphere responds to different solar conditions. The longer you observe, the clearer the pattern becomes.
And now it's just going to sit up there for a century.
Yes. It's in a stable orbit. It won't crash tomorrow or next year. But eventually, Mars's gravity will win. It'll fall. By then, we'll have moved on to other questions.
Did anyone see the failure coming?
Not that we know. The review board is still investigating. But thirteen years in space is a long time. Things fail. Radiation damages electronics. Materials degrade. At some point, something critical breaks, and there's no way to fix it from Earth.