NASA’s six active missions to Mars will be in safe mode for the next two weeks , as radio communications are complicated by the fact that Earth and Mars are on opposite sides of the Sun. It will also happen with those of the National Administration of the China space, whose robotic rovers will be in a state of maintenance until the Sun stops blocking communications.
The reason
The Sun is about to pass between Earth and Mars in an event called “solar conjunction of Mars”, which prevents all direct communications until the two planets regain positions in the line of sight, according to NASA scientists. It occurs every two years, when the planet moves behind the Sun, from our perspective of Earth . The sun’s hot outer atmosphere, or corona, will disrupt interplanetary communications (act as a barrier).
Mars doesn’t actually pass behind the Sun , but it is close enough that the Sun interferes with radio communications between the two planets. So not only will it take 22 minutes for the radio signal to travel from Earth to Mars, but if the Sun is very close, it also complicates communication.
“This could corrupt the commands and lead to unexpected behavior from our deep space explorers, ” NASA said in a statement, referring to its three orbiters, two rovers, a lander and a helicopter operating from the Red Planet. .
How long will the ‘blackout’ last?
Two weeks, October 2-16, though it also raises concerns about maintaining communications with space probes, or even manned missions to the Red Planet, the outer planets, and far beyond.
NASA said it will assign its various robots “tasks” that they can safely perform on their own while communications are down.
The affected missions
- NASA’s Rover Perseverance, which landed in February 2021 and will take weather measurements, run radar experiments, look for swirls of dust passing in front of it, and listen to ambient sounds with the microphone it carries. Various instruments on board will be turned off.
- NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter, which also landed in February and has been making long flights to Mars as NASA figures out how to fly safely during the normal seasonal thinning of the Martian atmosphere.
- NASA’s Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars in 2012 and is carrying out measurements of radiation, weather, or dust clouds. Several instruments aboard the rover will also be turned off.
- NASA’s InSight module, which landed in 2018, is preparing to use its seismometer to continue searching for large marsquakes.
- Odyssey Orbiters, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and Mars Atmosphere and Vollatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN), all of which will send status updates from Martian surface missions and make scientific observations of their own, which they will send to Earth once the conditions are restored. communications.
The solar conjunction will also affect other missions on Mars in Europe, China and India, although these agencies have not yet detailed their plans for this time of forced maintenance.
How could this blockage be avoided?
It could be solved with a relay satellite positioned between Earth and Mars, perhaps a quarter of the way back in Earth’s orbit. Looking ahead to space travel, it could pose serious challenges for sending and receiving communications. In the event that we had to send some information to Alpha Centauri, for example, which is 4.5 light years away, the answer would not arrive until after at least 9 years …
