NASA’s Mars Fleet Will Still Conduct Science While Lying Low

Rovers and orbiters will continue gathering minimal information throughout a two-week interactions time out due to the position of Earth, the Sun, and the Red Planet.

NASA will hold back sending out commands to its Mars fleet for 2 weeks, from Nov. 11 to 25, while Earth and the Red Planet are on opposite sides of the Sun. Called Mars solar combinationthis phenomenon takes place every 2 years. The objectives time out due to the fact that hot, ionized gas expelled from the Sun’s corona might possibly corrupt radio signals sent out from Earth to NASA’s Mars spacecraft, resulting in unforeseen habits.

That’s not to state those robotic explorers are on vacation. NASA’s Determination and Interest rovers will keep track of modifications in surface area conditions, weather condition, and radiation as they remain parked. For a moment grounded, the Resourcefulness Mars Helicopter will utilize its color cam to study the motion of sand, which postures an ever-present obstacle to Mars objectives. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Odyssey orbiter will continue imaging the surface area. And MAVEN will continue gathering information on interactions in between the environment and the Sun.

This brief video highlights why interactions in between Earth and NASA spacecraft on Mars are stopped briefly throughout Mars solar combination. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

While NASA normally gets health updates from the Mars fleet throughout combination, there will be 2 days when the firm will not speak with it since the Red Planet will be completely behind the disk of the Sun.

When the moratorium (as the interactions time out is understood) ends, the orbiters will pass on all the pending science information to Earth, and the spacecraft can start getting directions once again.

“Our objective groups have actually invested months preparing order of business for all our Mars spacecraft,” stated Roy Gladden, supervisor of the Mars Relay Network at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “We’ll still have the ability to speak with them and examine their states of health over the next couple of weeks.”

For more about NASA’s Mars objectives, go to:

https://mars.nasa.gov/