NASA has initiated a two-week communication hiatus with its Mars fleet, starting Nov. 11, due to the Mars solar conjunction. This astronomical event, occurring every two years, places Earth and Mars on opposite sides of the Sun, potentially disrupting radio signals with hot, ionized gas from the Sun’s corona.
During this period, extending until Nov. 25, NASA will suspend sending commands to its rovers and orbiters on Mars. The agency aims to prevent signal corruption that could result in unintended behaviors of spacecraft.
Despite the pause in commands, NASA’s Mars explorers are not idle. The Perseverance and Curiosity rovers will continue to monitor Martian surface conditions, weather, and radiation levels. Meanwhile, the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, though not flying, will utilize its color camera to analyze sand movement, a significant challenge for Mars missions. Orbiters, including the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Odyssey orbiter, and MAVEN, will persist in their surface imaging and atmospheric studies.
Throughout most of the conjunction, NASA expects to receive regular updates on the health of its Mars fleet. However, a two-day complete silence is anticipated when Mars will be entirely obscured by the Sun.
Post-conjunction, the accumulated scientific data will be transmitted back to Earth, and the Mars spacecraft will resume normal operations and communication.
Roy Gladden, manager of the Mars Relay Network at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, highlighted the extensive preparations undertaken for this event. “Our mission teams have spent months preparing to-do lists for all our Mars spacecraft,” he said. “We’ll still be able to hear from them and check their states of health over the next few weeks.”
This temporary silence underscores the challenges of interplanetary exploration and the need for careful planning in managing space missions.