MAVEN
MAVEN — NASA's Mars orbiter that studied how the planet loses its atmosphere to space, from 2014 until contact was lost in December 2025.
Key facts
Mission & specifications
Mission
- Operator
- NASA
- Launched
- November 18, 2013
- Status
- Lost
Trajectory
- Speed rel. Mars
- 3.8 km/s
- Computed from the cached state vector, relative to Mars
- Distance from the Sun
- 1.57 AU
- Computed from the cached position
- Distance from Earth
- 1.5 AU
- Computed from cached positions
- Distance from Mars
- 9,880,138 km
- Computed from cached positions
Cost & funding
- Program cost
- $5.82 × 10⁸ USD
Mission
MAVEN was sent to solve a planetary murder mystery: how Mars, once warm enough for rivers and lakes, lost almost all of its air and became the cold, near-airless desert we see today. Its name stands for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN. Launched by NASA on 18 November 2013 and in orbit since 21 September 2014, the spacecraft was built not to study the surface but the tenuous upper atmosphere and the way it leaks into space. Mars, unlike Earth, has no global magnetic field to shield it, and MAVEN found the culprit at work: the solar wind — the constant stream of charged particles from the Sun — strips gas from the top of the atmosphere and carries it away, a process that accelerates dramatically during solar storms. By measuring how fast Mars is losing its air now, scientists can run the clock backwards and reconstruct how a once-thick atmosphere thinned over billions of years, allowing the planet's water to freeze or escape. To sample different layers MAVEN periodically lowered its orbit in 'deep dip' campaigns that skimmed the upper atmosphere, and beyond its own science the orbiter became a key communications relay for the rovers on the surface. On 6 December 2025 it passed behind Mars and never reappeared: NASA's Deep Space Network could not reacquire its signal, and in June 2026 NASA's anomaly review concluded that the spacecraft could not be recovered, ending the mission after more than eleven years at Mars.
- 2013Launch toward MarsLaunch
MAVEN sets off to study how Mars lost its atmosphere to space.
The orbiter settles into an elliptical path that lets it sample the upper atmosphere.
- 2015Solar wind caught stripping the airMilestone
MAVEN measures the Sun's wind tearing gas from the top of the atmosphere, especially during storms.
- 2019Orbit lowered for relay dutyMilestone
MAVEN tightens its orbit to serve as a communications relay for rovers on the surface.
- 2025Contact lostMission end
MAVEN passes behind Mars and its signal is never reacquired.
- 2026Declared unrecoverableMilestone
NASA's anomaly review concludes that the spacecraft cannot be recovered.
Images
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