2026年6月3日 / 美国东部时间下午5:26 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
六个月前，当NASA的MAVEN探测器飞越火星背面时，它仍在正常工作，研究太阳风如何影响火星大气层。但在这次持续20至30分钟、与地球失去联系的火星背面飞越过程中，出现了故障，此后再也没有收到过这艘航天器的信号。
周三，在经过集中努力尝试远程重置航天器计算机、促使探测器“向地球传回信号”后，航天局官员表示，这艘耗资5.82亿美元的轨道器已无法被找回，其极其成功的任务正式宣告结束。
“我们与MAVEN的最后一次成功通信发生在2025年12月6日，”位于马里兰州NASA戈达德航天飞行中心的MAVEN项目经理迈克·莫罗说道。“当航天器按计划进入飞越火星背面的掩星过程时，MAVEN航天器及其所有子系统都处于正常状态。”
“在信号丢失前的一周里，没有任何迹象表明航天器存在问题，但当12月6日航天器从火星背面飞出时，深空网络并未检测到信号，”莫罗说道。
一张MAVEN航天器在火星轨道运行的艺术想象图。NASA
科研人员在失联状态下发送指令，试图强制重启MAVEN的飞行计算机，但均未奏效。
“不幸的是，所有试图恢复与MAVEN通信的努力最终都失败了，自12月6日以来，我们再也没有收到过这艘航天器的遥测数据或信号，”莫罗说道。
MAVEN全称为火星大气与挥发物演化任务，于2013年11月18日发射升空，并于次年9月成功制动进入火星轨道。
这艘探测器配备了一套精密的仪器设备，旨在研究火星大气层，以深入了解太阳风粒子如何侵蚀、吹散并使其变薄。
MAVEN的原定设计寿命仅为在火星轨道运行一年，但任务多次得到延长，使其成为有史以来对火星大气运行机制进行的最全面研究项目。
火星曾是一个更温暖、更湿润的星球，但要让水在地表存在，需要比当前高得多的大气压强。MAVEN为研究数十亿年来太阳风带电粒子如何侵蚀火星大气层提供了重要见解。
“我们最令人兴奋的发现之一，是利用11年的MAVEN数据首次在任何行星上观测到了被称为‘溅射’的大气逃逸过程，”科罗拉多大学博尔德分校的首席研究员香农·柯里说道。
“这一过程指的是带电粒子撞击高层大气，将中性大气溅射出去，就像在泳池里投下一颗炮弹，”柯里说道。“我们的团队证实，这一过程数十亿年来一直是大气逃逸的主要机制，这对太阳系内乃至系外行星都具有重大意义。”
除了研究这颗红色星球的大气层外，MAVEN还协助将NASA两辆现役火星漫游车“好奇号”和“毅力号”的信号中继给喷气推进实验室的飞行控制人员。目前另有三艘火星轨道器提供类似的通信中继服务。
尽管MAVEN的运行时间远超最初任务期限，NASA仍在试图查明故障原因，以期为其他任务汲取教训。今年2月，该局成立了一个异常审查委员会，以调查事故根源。
作为正在进行的调查的一部分，工程师们重新分析了深空网络在MAVEN从火星背面飞出期间——作为一项 ongoing 无线电科学实验的一部分——可能“接收到”的录音。不出所料，没有正常的遥测数据，但他们发现了数据碎片，表明航天器当时正以每分钟2.7圈的速度旋转。
除了为科学观测、通信和发电所需定期调整姿态外，MAVEN通常不会旋转，始终保持太阳能板对准太阳，天线对准地球。
按照观测到的旋转速度，正常通信将无法进行，太阳能阵列也无法产生足够电力。在这种情况下，探测器的电池会迅速耗尽。
莫罗不愿推测航天器与地球失联期间发生了什么，他表示期待正在进行的调查结果。
无论故障原因是什么，观测到的旋转速率都是致命的。预计这艘航天器将在火星轨道上保持当前轨道至少50至100年，但NASA不会再尝试恢复通信。
“从个人角度而言，领导这个团队是一种特权和荣幸，”柯里说道。“团队成员不知疲倦地运行航天器，交付了卓越的科学成果。正是他们的远见、干劲和好奇心，让这些惊人的发现得以实现。我会非常想念这艘航天器和这个团队。”
当被记者问到MAVEN的墓碑上应该刻什么时，柯里说道：“史上最佳火星任务。”
NASA declares end of mission for long-lasting Mars orbiter
June 3, 2026 / 5:26 PM EDT / CBS News
As it passed behind Mars six months ago, NASA’s MAVEN probe was still working normally, studying how the solar wind impacts the Martian atmosphere. But during that 20- to 30-minute pass behind the red planet, out of contact with Earth, something went wrong, and the spacecraft has not been heard from since.
On Wednesday, after concerted efforts to remotely reset the spacecraft’s computer and prompt the probe to “phone home,” agency officials said the $582 million orbiter could not be recovered and that its extraordinarily successful mission was at an end.
“Our last successful communication with MAVEN occurred on December 6 of 2025,” said Mike Moreau, MAVEN project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. “The MAVEN spacecraft and all of the subsystems were nominal when the spacecraft entered a normally scheduled occultation where the spacecraft passed behind Mars.”
“There were no indications of problems with the spacecraft in the week prior to the loss of signal, but when the spacecraft emerged behind Mars on December 6, the Deep Space Network did not detect a signal,” Moreau said.
An artist’s impression of the MAVEN spacecraft in orbit around Mars. NASA
Commands were sent in the blind in an attempt to force MAVEN’s flight computer to restart, but to no avail.
“Unfortunately, all of these efforts to reestablish communication with MAVEN were ultimately unsuccessful, and no telemetry or signal has been received from the spacecraft since December 6,” Moreau said.
Launched on Nov. 18, 2013, MAVEN, an acronym standing for the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission, braked into orbit around Mars the following September.
Equipped with a sophisticated suite of instruments, the probe was designed to study the Martian atmosphere to learn more about how it is eroded, or blown away and thinned out by particles in the solar wind.
Originally designed to operate for just one year around Mars, MAVEN’s mission was repeatedly extended, enabling the most extensive research into the workings of the Martian atmosphere ever attempted.
Mars was once a warmer, wetter world, but for water to exist on the surface, a much higher atmospheric pressure is required than what is present today. MAVEN has provided major insights into how charged particles in the solar wind have eroded the Martian atmosphere over billions of years.
“One of our most exciting discoveries used 11 years of MAVEN data to observe, for the first time in any planet, an atmospheric escape process called ‘sputtering,’” said Shannon Curry, the principal investigator at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
“This is where charged particles crash into the upper atmosphere and splash out the neutral atmosphere, much like doing a cannonball in a pool,” Curry said. “Our team (confirmed) that this process has been a dominant escape mechanism for billions of years, which has incredible implications for other planets in our solar system and even exoplanets.”
Along with studying the red planet’s atmosphere, MAVEN also helped relay signals from NASA’s two operational Mars rovers, Curiosity and Perseverance, to flight controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Three other Mars orbiters provide similar communications relay service.
While MAVEN operated well beyond its initial mission, NASA is attempting to find out what might have gone wrong in case there are lessons to be learned for other missions. In February, the agency set up an anomaly review board to look for the root cause.
As part of that ongoing investigation, engineers re-analyzed recordings of what the Deep Space Network possibly could have “heard” when MAVEN emerged from behind Mars as part of an ongoing radio science experiment. As expected, normal telemetry was not there, but they found fragments of data indicating the spacecraft was rotating at 2.7 revolutions per minute.
Other than periodically changing its orientation as required for science observations, communications and power generation, MAVEN did not normally rotate, keeping its solar panels aimed toward the sun and its antenna pointed toward Earth.
At the observed rotation rate, normal communications likely would not have been possible, and the arrays would have been unable to generate sufficient power. In that scenario, the probe’s batteries would have quickly drained.
Moreau would not speculate on what might have happened while the spacecraft was out of contact with Earth, saying he was eager to hear the results of the ongoing investigation.
Whatever the cause, the rotation rate observed in the recovered telemetry was not survivable. The spacecraft is expected to remain in the same orbit around Mars for at least the next 50 to 100 years, but NASA will make no additional attempts to regain contact.
“On a personal note, leading this team has been a privilege and an honor,” Curry said. “This team has worked tirelessly on operating the spacecraft and delivering exceptional science. It’s their vision, their drive and their curiosity that brought these amazing discoveries into fruition. I will miss the spacecraft and this team dearly.”
Asked by a reporter what should go on MAVEN’s tombstone, Curry said: “Best Mars mission ever.”