NASA’s MAVEN Faces Eventual Crash
While picturing space missions to Mars, the images of a fascinating landing, the exploration of the planet by robots and the spectacular sights of another planet come to mind.
But surprisingly enough, little attention is paid to the destiny of space probes after the completion of their mission.
At one point, MAVEN – the probe studying the atmosphere of Mars, will join other spacecraft and become another piece of junk in space at Mars. According to scientists’ estimations, MAVEN, which was a space craft exploring the atmosphere of Mars, will make a collision with Mars within one hundred years from now due to the worsening of its orbit.
However, MAVEN is not a lone example.
The truth is that although it is a rather distant planet with a rather unsuccessful history of landing missions, it became a real graveyard of spacecraft.
The Afterlife of a Spacecraft
Space missions generally have clear goals and the defined timeframe when the satellite operates. After all, the further course may sound less impressive.
As far as Earth satellites are concerned, the possibility to deorbit a satellite or move it to the graveyard orbits exists. However, in the case of Mars, certain difficulties should be overcome.
First of all, it has a lot fewer resources than the Earth. Secondly, after the use of a satellite’s fuel and its operation capacity have been reached, the satellite simply drifts until gravity or air resistance takes effect.
Despite MAVEN’s current operations, research carried out by specialists about the satellite’s future shows that MAVEN’s orbiting is temporary.
Sooner or later, MAVEN will return to Mars.
Courtesy of Blake Patterson (Flickr CC0)A Growing Collection of Silent Explorers
“Burial ground of Mars” sounds like a name that should belong to some film about space and Mars. However, such a place really does exist.
Several failed missions to Mars have left some debris behind. Some vehicles fell apart when trying to land on Mars’ surface, while others managed to work until their end.
Some are orbiting Mars now, having fulfilled their mission, lost communication with Earth, or stopped sending information to Earth as their scientific missions ended.
Thus, one can say that we have the most unique collection of our efforts to get closer to another planet.
Since the debris and spacecraft are not influenced by nature as strongly as those on Earth (where they would be covered with rain, wind, or any other elements), our evidence will be safe from destruction forever.
It may happen one day in the future that humans would discover these machines the same way we discovered our old belongings.
Why Scientists Care About MAVEN’s Fate
The Maven mission, started in 2013, aimed at figuring out how the red planet had managed to strip off its atmosphere over billions of years.
The mission brought about answers to one of the most important questions in planetary science, as how a planet that once boasted of having rivers, lakes and atmosphere became what it is now.
Such a mission has completely transformed our outlook towards evolution of a planet in order for life to be viable there.
Therefore, the end result of Maven is much more relevant than any other technical matter.
In any case, this mission was a continuation of the journey towards discovering Mars, and hence, it must be mentioned that it too will come to an end.
The First Martian Ruins
It’s not unusual for humanity to talk about building cities of the future on Mars. In a sense, this planet’s ruins have been built already.
Debris left after different expeditions to the planet, made during decades, are scattered all over Mars, whether it was minutes-long expedition or it was several years long. Each of these is telling its unique story about the Red Planet.
MAVEN crash landing can be included in that list too.
For future astronauts or even future inhabitants of the planet, these devices would symbolize history. As well as when we travel to the launch place of the space probe or explore historical places of our planet.
The only difference between these monuments is their age.
Mars Is Teaching Us a New Kind of Legacy
In the end, however, MAVEN is more than just the story of a failed venture.
Indeed, the spacecraft has already proven itself to be more successful than initially expected and delivered years’ worth of valuable data to Earth. Even its eventual crash landing on the planet’s surface, no matter whether after several decades or a century, proves the fact that everything must have its ending sooner or later.
But the history does not have to vanish into oblivion anyway.
As ever-increasing numbers of countries and corporations seek their way to Mars, the Red Planet becomes to earn one unique distinction no other celestial body can ever have – its own historical archive of humans visiting it.
One day MAVEN too will enter this archive.
But not to end its life in the interstellar cemetery but, quite to the contrary, become part of the first-ever extraterrestrial museum of human exploration.
By David Loran Jr
A successful Editor-in-Chief, journalist for over 6 years, writing about important topics that are going on within the U.S. and beyond.
Sources:
The New York Times: NASA Says Goodbye to Its Longtime Mars Orbiter
Featured Image Courtesy of Paul Hudson‘s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of Blake Patterson‘s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
