After six months of radio silence, NASA's Maven spacecraft around Mars has been declared dead.
The space agency confirmed on Wednesday that the mission had ended after more than a decade of observations.
"The team really did experience the loss of a loved one with the end of the mission here," said NASA project manager Mike Moreau.
Launched in 2013 to study the red planet’s atmosphere from orbit, Maven mysteriously fell silent in early December after passing behind Mars. Data indicated the spacecraft went into a fast spin, disrupting its orbit and draining the onboard batteries.
A review board convened by NASA earlier this year concluded that the spacecraft was useless and unable to be recovered. It was expected to remain in orbit for another 50 to 100 years before crashing into the planet, posing no issue to other spacecraft until then. An investigation continued into what caused the problem.
Besides studying Martian weather and observing a stray interstellar comet last year, Maven helped relay information from NASA's Curiosity and Perseverance rovers on the surface. NASA officials said four other spacecraft around Mars — two US and two European satellites — will pick up the slack, with no rover science lost.
"The team is certainly broken up about this but, at the same time, we are incredibly proud of the science we've accomplished over the last decade," said Maven's lead scientist, Shannon Curry of the University of Colorado Boulder.
The spacecraft advanced scientists' understanding of the Martian atmosphere and evolution, Curry said.
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