Things are about to get a little quiet between NASA and its fleet of robotic Mars explorers. That's because an expected communication breakdown is about to happen, all thanks to the sun.
The Mars solar conjunction takes place between October 2 and 16, and this lapse of check-ins between Earth and Mars occurs for a couple of weeks every two years, when both planets are on opposite sides of the sun.
The NASA teams that manage Mars missions stop sending commands to the orbiters and rovers on the Martian surface until mid-October, but that doesn't mean all exploration on the red planet will grind to a halt.
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This diagram illustrates the position of Mars, Earth and the sun during Mars solar conjunction.
"Though our Mars missions won't be as active these next few weeks, they'll still let us know their state of health," said Roy Gladden, manager of the Mars Relay Network at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, in a statement. "Each mission has been given some homework to do until they hear from us again."
The sun is like a giant roadblock to communications, spewing out hot, energized gas from its outer atmosphere across space. When Mars and Earth are on opposite sides of the sun, this solar gas can interfere with the radio signals that NASA uses to communicate with its Martian robotic explorers.
If engineers attempt to send commands to any of the Martian spacecraft during this time, the messages may get mixed up -- and that gamble isn't worth the risk of rovers or orbiters receiving corrupted communication that could endanger them.
Instead, the robots are getting lists of simple commands ahead of the solar event that will keep them plenty busy. This way, they can cruise on autopilot without the need to await more instructions during the communication blackout. But don't expect the rovers to go for a joyride or for the Ingenuity helicopter to take to the Martian skies.
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