His lifelong career in satellite observations started in 1957 when as a third-year student was a member of the Latvian State University Observatory visual tracking team. On October 9th, 1957 he participated in the first Sputnik-1 observation. His 1960
diploma work was the design of a satellite tracking photographic camera. Together with Kasimirs Lapuska, he was team leader and optical designer of the widely known AFU-75 satellite camera. He obtained in 1964 the Dr.phys. degree with the dissertation Photographic
camera with speed compensation for observation of artificial satellites of the Earth, based on the AFU-75 design, at the Moscow State University, Russia. For this work he received in 1968 a silver medal at the National Economy Achievements Exhibition in
Moscow.

 During the 1970s Maris Abele designed the LD-1 and LD-2 SLR telescopes which were the backbone of the Soviet Union/Interkosmos first generation SLR tracking network. His AFU-75 and LD-1 systems were installed around the globe, in Europe, Asia, Africa,
Latin America and in far away and exotic places such as Kourou, Spitsbergen, Kerguelen, Seychelles and the Mirny Station in Antarctica. He continued developing SLR optical systems during the 1980s and later, in particular the ULIS-630, an innovative alt-alt
mount, and the 1 meter LS-105.The LS-105 system has been operated in Germany (Potsdam), Finland, Latvia and all the Ukrainian SLR stations. In 1987 he succeeded in permanently installing the first LS-105 exemplar in Riga. This LS-105 has been in operation
since 1989 up to today. He traveled widely along the world installing and testing his instruments and visited all the continents (including Australia). He was associated in different positions with the University of Latvia since 1960. In parallel he worked
at the Optical Mechanical Factory, Riga as Engineer-physicist from 1963 to 1990. He published dozens of scientific papers during his lifetime.

Maris Abele was a member of the Latvian Astronomical Society (1955), the International Astronomical Union (1973) and Corresponding Member, Latvian Academy of Sciences (2001). In 2000 he received the Fridrich Tsander Prize in Astronomy from the Latvian
Academy of Sciences. He continued designing optical equipment for satellite observation and participating in the station operations until the last days of his life.