The MAVEN probe has been out of commission for most of the year, but thanks to a very clever hack, the probe is now using the stars to navigate its way around the Red Planet.
NASA engineers were able to resolve the issue by uploading new software to the craft. NASA said that MAVEN resumed science and relay operations on May 28. Rich Burns, the MAVEN project manager at NASA, said in a statement that the team stepped up to the challenge.
The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, or MAVEN, probed the planet for clues as to why it lost so much of its atmosphere. It's important to understand the process by which Mars lost its atmosphere in order to determine if the Red Planet was once a good place to live.
The mission had been going well, with the probe doing good work in the red planet and NASA extending the duration of the mission five times. The team lost contact with the vehicle.
MAVEN ran into an issue with its Inertial Measurement Units, which measure the spacecraft's rotation to determine its attitude in space, or its ability to maintain or change its orientation relative to where it wants to go There are two IMUs on the space craft. The ground team couldn't determine the attitude from either of the IMUs when communication was restored.
While science operations were on hold, the spaceship entered into the ominous safe mode, keeping it floating through space. The team of engineers behind the mission worked to develop a system that would allow MAVEN to navigate without its IMUs. It wasn't supposed to be ready before October, but the team had already worked on it. The spaceship needed help from the stars sooner than later.
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