NASA interrupts communications with its robots on Mars

2023-11-13 01:04:31

NASA has cut communications with its equipment on the surface or in orbit around the Red Planet since November 11, but will be able to resume contact on November 25 due to the arrangement of the two planets in relation to the sun.

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Communications will therefore be impossible for two weeks, because Mars and Earth are on opposite sides of the sun, a phenomenon called “Mars solar conjunction” which occurs approximately every two years according to NASA.

The very hot ionized gas produced by the sun might corrupt radio signals sent from the blue planet, which might send the wrong instructions to equipment.

The Perseverance and Curiosity robots will, however, continue to keep an eye on changes to the weather and radiation on the surface of Mars during this break.

Other devices such as the Ingenuity helicopter, the reconnaissance orbiter and the Odyssey orbiter will also continue their tasks by producing images of the planet’s surface.

“Our teams spent months preparing to-do lists to get all of our equipment ready,” says Roy Gladden, head of the Mars Relay Network at the South Carolina Jet Propulsion Laboratory. We will still be able to monitor their signs of life over the coming weeks.”

However, a two-day period is expected during which no signals can be received, because Earth and Mars will be at exactly opposite points on either side of the sun.

From November 25, the devices will be able to send all the data they have collected over the two weeks to Earth.

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