\n<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve noticed a slowdown in Mars news lately, it\u2019s because of the Sun. Or, rather, it\u2019s because the Sun is temporarily blocking our \u201cview\u201d of the Red Planet, which is on the other side of the Sun from Earth, in what\u2019s called \u201cMars Solar Conjunction.\u201d <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n This happens every two years as Earth and Mars move through their orbits. The last one was in 2021. Of course, the missions don\u2019t stop doing their work. They stockpile data until it\u2019s safe to send their data-rich signals back. That means all the raw images and data are on \u201cpause\u201d until the solar conjunction ends.<\/p>\n Ordinarily, the Mars missions send data back every day (depending on the craft). But, during this solar conjunction, those signals have to take a trajectory that brings the data stream close to the Sun. Of course, the Sun being the Sun, it\u2019s constantly sending ionized gases and particles out to space through the corona. The environment corrupts signals moving through the near-Sun environment. In particular, that affects spacecraft commands and software updates. That happens to any data coming back from the planet. So, to keep things safe and \u201cnominal\u201d, the spacecraft engineers don\u2019t send crucial commands during this time. And, the spacecraft themselves are programmed to do their normal science<\/p>\n This year, the conjunction \u201cblackout\u201d runs until November 25th. NASA receives \u201chealth updates\u201d during this time, other than a two-day period when Mars is completely blocked by the Sun.<\/p>\n Mission scientists began planning for the Mars Solar Conjunction earlier this year. \u201cOur mission teams have spent months preparing to-do lists for all our Mars spacecraft,\u201d said Roy Gladden, manager of the Mars Relay Network at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. \u201cWe\u2019ll still be able to hear from them and check their states of health over the next few weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n \nMars Solar Conjunction Effects<\/h3>\n