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The daily chatter between the antennas here on Earth and those
onboard NASA in March is about to become a lot quieter for a few weeks.
This is because Mars and Earth will be on both sides of
the sun, a period known as March
solar conjunction. The Sun rejects the ionized hot gases of its crown, which
it extends far into space. During the solar conjunction, this gas can interfere with
radio signals when engineers try to communicate with a spaceship to Mars,
corrupt commands and lead to unexpected behavior of our deep space
Explorers.
For added security, engineers refrain from sending orders when
Mars disappears far enough behind the solar corona to increase risk
radio interference.
"It's that time again," said Roy Gladden,
Mars relay network leader at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena, California. "Our engineers are preparing our spaceship
for conjunction for months. They will always collect scientific data on Mars,
and some will try to send this data home. But we will not order the
spaceship for fear of being able to act on a corrupted order ".
When does it take
in law?
The solar conjunction takes place every two years. This time, the
keep the orders issued – called "moratorium of orders" – will be executed
from August 28 to September 7, 2019. Some missions will have stopped ordering their
spaceship earlier in preparation for the moratorium.
What's happening at
spatialship?
Although some instruments aboard spaceships – especially
cameras that generate large amounts of data – will be inactive, all NASA
The Mars spacecraft will continue its science; they will just have a lot simpler
to-do lists.
On the surface of Mars, the Curiosity rover will stop
driving, while the InSight lander does not move his robotic arm. Above Mars, both
The Orbiter Odyssey and Orbiter Mars Reconnaissance will continue
collect data from Curiosity and InSight for a return to Earth. However, only
Odyssey will attempt to relay this data to Earth before the end of the conjunction.
Meanwhile, another orbiter, MAVEN, will continue to collect his own scientific data
but will not support any relay operation during this time.
All this means that there will be a temporary break in
the raw image feed available at Curiosity, InSight
and the other
Martian missions. The solar conjunction of Mars affects the operations of all spacecraft
currently on Mars, not just NASA.
What happens when
solar conjunction ends?
Once the conjunction is complete, the spacecraft will transmit the
the data they collected at NASA Deep
Space network, a massive radio antenna system based on the Earth and managed by
JPL. Engineers will spend about a week downloading the information before
the normal operations of spaceships resume.
If the teams responsible for monitoring these missions determine one of the
the collected scientific data is corrupt, they can usually have this data
retransmitted after the end of the moratorium on 7 September.
For more information on NASA Mars
Exploration program, visit:
https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov
https://www.nasa.gov/mars
Media contact
Andrew Good
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
818-393-2433
[email protected]
Alana Johnson
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1501
[email protected]
2019-172
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