What made the event especially noticeable is that the mission is a primary source of information on the behaviour and evolution of the Martian atmosphere. During routine checks, the orbiter, which has spent more than a decade around the Red Planet, suddenly stopped returning data. This forced engineering teams to begin a detailed diagnostic sequence to understand the cause. Incidents like this occur in deep space exploration, yet the stakes are higher here because MAVEN carries specialised instruments that detect how solar activity interacts with the upper atmosphere. Its long running observations support climate modelling, radiation forecasting and broader planetary science. This has prompted questions about how engineers work to recover a spacecraft that has entered a restricted communi

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