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NASA Can’t Talk to its Mars Robots for Two Weeks Because the Sun is in the Way

posted by hubie on Saturday November 18 2023, @04:17AM   Printer-friendly
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upstart writes:

The space agency is waiting out a phenomenon known as a solar conjunction:

NASA is putting pause on sending commands to its Mars exploration instruments from November 11 through November 25 as it waits out the Mars solar conjunction. With the sun in the way, any commands sent to Mars could suffer interference capable of harming the robotic explorers.

NASA's Mars exploration robots will be on their own for the next two weeks while the space agency waits out a natural phenomenon that will prevent normal communications. Mars and Earth have reached positions in their orbits that put them on opposite sides of the sun, in an alignment known as solar conjunction. During this time, NASA says it's risky to try and send commands to its instruments on Mars because interference from the sun could have a detrimental effect.

That means the Perseverance and Curiosity rovers, the Ingenuity helicopter, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the Odyssey and MAVEN orbiters will be left to their own devices for a little while. Their onboard instruments will continue to gather data for their respective missions, but won't send this information back to Earth until the blackout ends.

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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Saturday November 18 2023, @05:13AM (8 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday November 18 2023, @05:13AM (#1333360) Journal
    I wonder how long before it'll be worth putting a communication relay in a convenient spot like the Lagrangian 4 or 5 spots of either the Sun-Earth or Sun-Mars systems? L4/5 of the Sun-Earth system is probably the best possibility since they would be a shorter path overall, double the solar influx and available solar power of a Mars level orbit, and would also be good for any other destination that becomes obstructed from Earth by the Sun.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by PiMuNu on Saturday November 18 2023, @10:46AM (1 child)

      by PiMuNu (3823) on Saturday November 18 2023, @10:46AM (#1333379)

      I guess it's pretty expensive thing to alleviate a minor inconvenience. If it can be a repurposed/dual purpose spacecraft then maybe...

      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday November 19 2023, @07:24PM

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday November 19 2023, @07:24PM (#1333535) Journal
        mcgrew brought up a better approach. Have the relay closely orbit the Sun. Then it can alleviate a lot of minor inconveniences.

    • (Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Saturday November 18 2023, @03:20PM (3 children)

      by ElizabethGreene (6748) Subscriber Badge on Saturday November 18 2023, @03:20PM (#1333396) Journal

      Another option that has been discussed is, I shit you not, to use neutrinos shot through the Sun for communication.

      To say this presents some technical challenges is a bit of an understatement. :)

      • (Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Saturday November 18 2023, @05:31PM (2 children)

        by PiMuNu (3823) on Saturday November 18 2023, @05:31PM (#1333433)

        It might be possible with near term tech. These guys

        https://muoncollider.web.cern.ch/ [web.cern.ch]

        are talking about a neutrino beam with ~ 1e-6 rad angular divergence and ~ 10^{12} neutrinos per second. Claim is first beam by 2045. One would have to study the effect of scattering in the sun.

        • (Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Saturday November 18 2023, @09:30PM (1 child)

          by ElizabethGreene (6748) Subscriber Badge on Saturday November 18 2023, @09:30PM (#1333454) Journal

          (I am not an expert on this topic.) My understanding is the detector is a problem too. Aren't the detectors here on Earth giant underground swimming pools? That would be nontrivial to replicate on Mars.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 18 2023, @11:59PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 18 2023, @11:59PM (#1333470)

            Not really, any swimming pool on Mars is probably going to have to be underground or the water will evaporate.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by mcgrew on Saturday November 18 2023, @03:42PM (1 child)

      by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Saturday November 18 2023, @03:42PM (#1333403) Homepage Journal

      In my fiction I placed the communication relay north or south of the Sun.

      --
      Poe's Law [nooze.org] has nothing to do with Edgar Allen Poetry

      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday November 18 2023, @11:58PM

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday November 18 2023, @11:58PM (#1333469) Journal
        That makes sense because it works for any source and destination, not just Earth, including a shorter distance. And it would be an even higher energy environment since you could place it well within the orbit of Venus and still be effective - perhaps a series of relays in stable orbital resonances with Mercury.

  • (Score: 4, Funny) by turgid on Saturday November 18 2023, @01:52PM (3 children)

    by turgid (4318) Subscriber Badge on Saturday November 18 2023, @01:52PM (#1333387) Journal

    Can they not just communicate at night?

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