NASA Retires MAVEN Mars Orbiter While Perseverance Rover Advances Sample Collection Campaign

According to NASA, the biggest Mars-mission news in the past week is the agency’s formal farewell to **MAVEN**, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission, after mission review teams determined the spacecraft is **not recoverable** and can no longer carry out its science or relay role. NASA said MAVEN’s last contact came after an unexpected loss of signal, ending a mission that helped scientists understand how Mars lost much of its atmosphere and how the planet evolved over time. At the same time, NASA Science continues to highlight ongoing Mars mission coverage, with fresh reporting centered on **Perseverance** and the rover’s sample-collection campaign in Jezero Crater. In recent mission updates and public briefings, NASA has emphasized Perseverance’s work on the crater floor and its preparations to collect samples that could one day be returned to Earth, a key step in the broader Mars Sample Return effort. For listeners following Mars exploration beyond NASA, Mars Daily’s recent reporting points to continued international activity, including **ExoMars Rosalind Franklin** parachute testing ahead of a planned 2028 mission. That remains an important signal that Mars exploration is still active on multiple fronts, even as some older spacecraft are retired. The current picture is clear: one major Mars mission is ending, while another is still pushing forward with the search for clues about Mars’s past habitability and the long-term goal of returning Martian samples home. For listeners who want the most immediate takeaway, this week’s Mars story is about transition, as one spacecraft is being honored for its legacy and others keep advancing the next phase of exploration. Thank you for tuning in, and please subscribe. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.