Published on November 22, 2006

The U.S. space agency NASA says its oldest satellite orbiting Mars has probably ended its career. NASA engineers lost contact with it about three weeks ago and are losing hope of ever hearing from it again. But NASA is celebrating its accomplishments rather than mourning its apparent death.

The Mars Global Surveyor arrived at the red planet nine years ago. It was the first of several orbiters that are surveying the cold, barren landscape, looking especially for signs of water and relaying signals from the two robotic rovers crawling over the terrain.

Mars Global Surveyor discoveries

The satellite also found local magnetic fields, indicating that Mars once had a global magnetic field like Earth's, shielding it from cosmic rays. Because it worked so long, it was able to track environmental changes through many annual cycles.

"Mars Global Surveyor has generated a tremendous legacy, not only in the discoveries at hand, but also in the future scientific surprises to be discovered from the ongoing analyses," added Michael Meyer.

By David McAlary, Voice of America

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