NASA reduces the activity of missions to Mars due to the solar conjunction

We recently wrote about what the rover looks like Perseverance than the drone Ingenuity are in a (relative) pause phase due to the solar conjunction which occurs every two years. Actually all missions NASA but also CNSA, ESA and other agencies are in a standby phase where they cannot no receiving or sending signals to and from Earth.

When the Sun stands between the Earth and Mars the signals are blocked or degraded to such an extent that they are no longer reliable. For this reason, the engineers are preparing for this period (which lasts about two weeks) to allow them to resume activities as soon as reliable communications are possible again.

NASA and the solar conjunction: we think of the missions to Mars

From 2 October to 14 October (and some missions until 16 October) the NASA will ensure that missions currently on Mars can perform basic tasks that do not jeopardize the integrity of the various devices. Then the rover Perseverance and Curiosity will not move while the Ingenuity drone will not fly (also due to the problem detected in the servomotors).

As written above, this does not it means that the various subsystems will be completely deactivated. In recent weeks, various commands have been sent to be executed in this period “pause” allowing you to perform some routine e collection of scientific information on the Red Planet.

NASA Perseverance in rest position seen from the MRO

Regarding NASA Perseverance , will use its MEDA (Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer) weather station to collect information on the Martian weather. With cameras instead it will look for i dust devil (dust devils) without moving the “head” of the rover. The RIMFAX (Radar Imager for Mars Subsurface Experiment) and microphones will then be used to capture ambient sounds.

NASA Ingenuity instead will not fly and stopped 175 meters away from the rover. To get additional information on the drone, the latter will send some data to Perseverance which will collect them and then send them, as soon as possible, to the Earth. This will allow the engineers to know the health of the device.

NASA Curiosity will record Martian weather data (located in a different location than Perseverance) thanks to REMS (Rover Environmental Monitoring Station). Furthermore, the radiation reaching the ground will be measured thanks to RAD (Radiation Assessment Detector) and DAN (Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons). Finally we will go “hunting” by dust devil thanks to the cameras.

The lander NASA InSight ( which has reached and exceeded 1000 sol ) will continue to analyze possible Martian earthquakes. Then there are the three orbiters Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and MAVEN. They will continue to collect data and will try to send some to Earth. In this case it is non-essential data, but only those where their damage will not be a problem. To download all the data, once the solar conjunction has passed, it will take about a week. After this period operations will resume normally.