All communications from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. to the Mars rovers and orbiters will be temporarily suspended during the next few weeks to prevent the sun from disrupting or damaging radio transmissions as it passes between Earth and Mars, NASA announced late last month.
According to NASA, this phenomenon, known as a Mars solar conjunction, takes place once every 26 months. A video released by the JPL explains that during the phenomenon, charged particles and solar flares from the sun can interfere with and disrupt commands transmitted from Earth to Mars, resulting in incorrect or incomplete commands being relayed to the Mars spacecraft.
“This is our sixth conjunction for Odyssey,” Chris Potts, mission manager for NASA’s Mars Odyssey, which has been orbiting Mars since 2001, said. “We have plenty of useful experience dealing with them, though each conjunction is a little different.”
“The biggest difference for this 2013 conjunction is having Curiosity on Mars,” Potts added.
Transmissions will be completely suspended from April 9 to 26 while Mars and the sun are at a visual angle of two degrees or less apart in the sky, with restrictions placed on communications several days before and after. Both the Odyssey and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will continue to collect scientific data and receive and record data from Curiosity and the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, respectively. Odyssey will also reportedly continue to send limited transmissions back to Earth, though engineers anticipate the data will have to be retransmitted at a later date due to transmission errors.
For more information, visit NASA.
