On November 11th, NASA stopped sending commands to the Mars rover, and this communications blackout will last until November 25th.
The reason for this two-week hiatus is that Mars is currently in solar conjunction, meaning the sun is currently directly between Earth and Mars, and radio commands can be interfered with by the sun’s charged particles.
Although no new orders have been received, Mars rovers, satellites, and a small helicopter have a pre-planned list of scientific objectives and will continue to send health checks during the two-week break. .
For more than a week, NASA has been cut off from communications with all robotic missions on and in Mars orbit, but don’t worry, this is by design.
Approximately every two years, Earth and Mars experience a brief period known as a solar conjunction, when the two planets are on opposite sides of the sun.According to the starry sky observation site In the skythe Sun and Mars are both in Libra, which means Mars will be lost in the sun’s glare for a few weeks and communication with his robot friend in the fourth rock will be sketchy at best.
On average, Mars is usually about 140 million miles away, but that distance expands during solar conjunctions. The distance spans approximately 235 million miles. 2.5 astronomical units (Australia) From Earth. This is essentially the cosmic inverse of Mars opposition, with Earth sandwiched between Mars and the Sun (and the planet of the God of War). Appearance especially bloodthirsty Into the night sky. )
So why do we have to say goodbye to our mechanical brethren for two weeks? Now, the problem is the sun, which is essentially a giant interference sphere. When spacecraft, orbiters, and clever helicopters try to send data back to Earth, the sun’s charged particles can interfere with the information and leave gaps in the data. However, the opposite would be a more dire scenario as a confused command sent by NASA could lead to mission doom. NASA will suspend command from November 11th to November 25th.
As NASA explains, that doesn’t mean these robots are going on a sabbatical. The stationary rover Curiosity of Perseverance will continue to monitor the surface of Mars, and the Mars Reconnaissance and Odyssey orbiters will continue as usual (but without it Of course I’ll call home) Mars’ atmosphere and unstable evolution (MAVEN) Spacecraft will continue to study the atmosphere and even NASA’s small helicopter Ingenuity While on the ground, it will monitor the movement of Martian sand.
“Our mission team has spent months preparing a to-do list for all Mars rovers,” said Tom, who is manager of the Mars Relay Network at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Roy Gladden said. in a press statement. “We will continue to hear from them and check on their health over the coming weeks.”
However, while Mars is directly behind the sun’s disk, even these health checks will be dark for 48 hours. While various mission controls are holding their collective breath, hopefully in two days’ time, familiar signs of machine life will be present again, and humanity’s Martian companions have learned what they learned while we were gone. I’m sure you’re eager to share.
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