NASA Mars Missions Will Be Quiet For 2 Weeks to Protect Spacecraft From Solar Conjunction 2021

The Mars missions will stay silent for roughly two weeks because of a "solar conjunction" in October. However, this does not imply that the spacecraft will remain stationary on Mars.

The Earth and Mars are hidden from each other for roughly two weeks every two years because of their positions on opposite sides of the sun. The two planets are "temporarily hidden to one other" at this moment like dancers on the opposite side of a big campfire. NASA calls this phenomenon the "solar conjunction."

Because the ionized plasma that the sun emits can interfere with radio transmissions, spacecraft on Mars was basically "incommunicado" during this period. NASA explained that engineers don't try to send new instructions or interact with them. The "commanding moratorium" will be in effect from October 2 until October 16.

According to the agency, it is "difficult to anticipate" which information may be lost due to the interference.

"That could corrupt commands and result in unexpected behavior from our deep space explorers," the agency noted in a statement.

Space.com said other missions to Mars from Europe, China, and India would be affected by the solar conjunction. For China, ScreenRant said the Zhurong Rover would turn off all communications with Mars on September 13. Other organizations have not yet outlined their intentions for the period.

Rover Engineers Sends 2-Weeks Worth of Assignments to Mars Probes During Solar Conjunction

The engineers send two weeks' worth of instructions to the Mars probe before the solar conjunction.

Roy Gladden, manager of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Relay Network, said in the same statement from the agency that each mission has been assigned homework to complete.

The Perseverance rover, for example, will use its microphones to record new noises and its cameras to hunt for dust devils, while the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter will stay 575 feet away but provide Perseverance a weekly status report.

According to its Twitter account, the Perseverance Rover discovered a lovely parking location between dunes and a rock outcrop in preparation for a 2-week solar conjunction.

The Curiosity Rover, older than the Perseverance, will accompany it hunting for dust devils and taking measurements with its equipment. At the same time, the InSight Lander and three NASA orbiters will have their missions.

Like parents who teach their children to be responsible and then allow them to go on a brief vacation with their friends, NASA claims to have done all possible to assure the voyagers' health and safety.

Engineers intend to download the data roughly a week after the solar conjunction passes using NASA's Deep Space Network. Space.com explained that the feature is a network of radio antennae spread around the globe that listen in on deep space missions.

If the teams monitoring these missions find that any obtained science data has been damaged, NASA stated they might typically have that data retransmitted. Once the data collecting procedure is completed, normal spacecraft activities will resume.

China's Zhurong Rover, meanwhile, will enter the remote sensing mission orbit at the appropriate time to conduct global remote sensing exploration of Mars. The transmission from the Mars rover expansion mission stage will be relayed by the Chinese spacecraft.

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