Why NASA has cut contact with all its Mars missions

NASA has been incommunicado with all its robotic missions on and in orbit of Mars for more than a week now.

This is because the Red Planet was apparently swallowed by the Sun.

Although this sounds appears astonishing, it is actually a regular happening that occurs between Earth and Mars every two years.

Let’s take a closer look.

Solar conjunction

The brief period when Earth and Mars are on opposing sides of the Sun is known as solar conjunction, and it occurs roughly every two years.

The stargazing website, In the sky claims that Mars will be lost in the Sun's glare for weeks, making contact with our robotic companions on the fourth rock difficult. This is because the Sun and Mars will be in the constellation Libra in the sky.

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Although Mars is typically 140 million miles away, the balloons are launched during solar conjunction. That distance is approximately 2.5 astronomical units (AU) from Earth, or 235 million miles.

In simple terms, this is Mars opposition's cosmic opposite, when Earth is instead positioned between Mars and the Sun.

NASA pauses communication

The Sun, which is basically a massive ball of interference, is the problem here.

Data gaps may result from the charged particles of the Sun interfering with signals sent back to Earth by rovers, orbiters, and one very spectacular helicopter, according to In the sky. The reverse, however, could be much more disastrous since it could result in a mission's demise due to unclear directives sent by NASA.

NASA has decided to halt operations from 11 November until 25 November.

The space agency clarifies that this does not imply that these robots will be going on a long vacation.

The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft will continue to study the atmosphere, the immobile Curiosity of Perseverance rovers will continue to monitor the Martian surface, the Mars Reconnaissance and Odyssey orbiters will carry on as usual, and even NASA's tiny helicopter Ingenuity will continue to monitor the movement of Martian sand while it is grounded.

“Our mission teams have spent months preparing to-do lists for all our Mars spacecraft. We’ll still be able to hear from them and check their states of health over the next few weeks,” Roy Gladden, manager of the Mars Relay Network at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said in a press statement.

But even those health checks will be unavailable for 48 hours when Mars is directly behind the Sun's disk.

Hopefully, the typical indicators of mechanical life will reappear after two days, and humanity's Martian allies will be excited to impart what they have discovered during our absence, while the many mission controllers collectively hold their breath.

With inputs from agencies