NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor has likely finished its operating career. The spacecraft has served the longest and been the most productive of any mission ever sent to the red planet.
The orbiter has not communicated with Earth since November 2nd. Preliminary indications are that a solar panel became difficult to pivot, raising the possibility that the spacecraft may no longer be able to generate enough power to communicate. NASA’s newest Mars spacecraft, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, pointed its cameras toward Mars Global Surveyor on Monday, but preliminary analysis of the images did not show any definitive sightings of a spacecraft.
Mars Global Surveyor launched on November 7, 1996, and began orbiting Mars on September 11, 1997. The mission started its primary mapping phase in April 1999. The original plan was to examine the planet for one Mars year, nearly two Earth years. Based on the value of the science returned by the spacecraft, NASA extended its mission four times.
Mars Global Surveyor revolutionized our view of the Martian surface. Among its accomplishments are its more than 240.000 pictures, offering the best high resolution view of the red planet to date.
Source: NASA