The very bad news is… that the batteries are likely drained — based on the time since a confirmed sun-facing attitude, for the heavier “photo-shooter” component.
Here is the latest, from last night — at the European Space Agency:
…The anomaly caused an apparent chain reaction that prevented the Coronagraph from entering safe mode and led to a “progressive loss of attitude,” the ESA update said. The change in orientation pointed the spacecraft’s solar panels away from the sun, quickly draining its batteries and triggering a “survival mode.”
As they search for a cause, mission operators are investigating how they might safely steer the Occulter probe closer to the Coronagraph to assist in diagnosing the issue and reestablishing contact. ESA officials said they will provide updates “as new information becomes available….”
The Proba-3 spacecraft entered [a] precise station-keeping formation in May 2025, demonstrating for the first time ever the ability for two spacecraft to remain in such synchronicity. Then, in June 2025, the mission captured its first photos of an artificial solar eclipse.
Now, ESA is trying to determine what exactly went wrong last month. “The root cause of the anomaly is under investigation, and mission teams are working hard to recover the situation,” the agency said in an update on March 6….
Here’s to still-hoping for a good outcome — but normal solar battery chemistry / physics would tell us that that is now… unlikely. The clock has wound down. Onward, just the same [and I think we can officially declare MAVEN, at Mars… DOA, for NASA.]
नमस्ते
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