NASA engineers studying Mars have been forced to take a break as their sight of the Red Planet is blocked by solar conjunction during April.
The position of the sun during the month complicates the reception and sending of instructions to and from the convoy of satellites positioned in the orbit and on the surface of Mars.
The celestial alignment occurs biannually as the planet disappears behind the sun, endangering commands sent to the satellite to sunray flares, leading to transmission confusion which could compromise the spacecraft.
According to NASA, missions have prepared for this with pre-loaded scaled-back activities.
Data transmissions from rovers orbiting Mars are postponed for the blocking period while being monitored by Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Rich Zurek, chief scientist of Mars at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, confirmed: “They’re on their own.”
Engineers working on the project have been advised to take a holiday as the Mars-bound space operations function on auto pilot.
Astronomical action around the red planet will resume once it is visible again.
HumanIPO reported last month on the search for extraterrestrial life by the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope.
Rover Curiosity made a distinct discovery, detecting traces of microbes, interpreted as signs of potential life existing billions of years ago on the planet.
But Curiosity’s operation on Mars has been threatened by corrupted files, which damaged the flash device on the planet-roaming. Operations will now be limited to weather checking, radiation measurement and water detections until May 1.
