science

NASA lost communication with its MAVEN probe nearly a month ago, and efforts to re-establish a connection have been futile.

For nearly a month, NASA has been scrambling to make contact with a spacecraft in orbit around Mars that abruptly fell silent.

The space agency lost communication with the MAVEN probe (short for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) on Dec. 6, and efforts to re-establish a connection have been futile. Based on bits of data received that day, mission controllers think the probe was spinning unexpectedly.

NASA now has to wait until Jan. 16 before it can again try to revive MAVEN, because Mars and Earth have been on opposite sides of the sun since Monday, resulting in a prolonged communications blackout.

Overall, it’s not looking promising for one of NASA’s workhorse missions.