Mars robots get easier tasks now that sun gets in the way

The robots traveling on Mars may take it easy in the coming weeks. The coming conjunction, in which the sun sits exactly between Earth and Mars, can disrupt radio signals from Earth. That is why the robots get a simpler task list.

“It’s that time again,” said Roy Gladden, NASA’s manager for the Mars Relay Network. “Our engineers have been preparing our spacecraft for conjunction for months. They are still collecting scientific data on Mars and some will try to send that data back to Earth. But we are not trying to send commands to the robots for fear that they going to act on a corrupt command,” Gladden said. This can lead to unpredictable behavior of the robots, which is why a command moratorium is set.

The Sun-Mars conjunction, where Mars and Earth are on opposite sides of the Sun, begins Wednesday and runs through September 7. The sun spews hot, ionized gas from the corona far into space, and during conjunction that gas can interfere with radio signals. In preparation for this period, some instruments are turned off, data is still being downloaded quickly, or data is being saved. In the past two weeks, many final instructions have been sent to the robots.

The adjustments differ per robot. Curiosity, for example, will no longer roam happily, while InSight, a lander that arrived on Mars at the end of November last year, will no longer move its arm. The Mars-flying Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will continue to collect data from Curiosity and InSight.

All of this means there has been a pause in the flow of raw footage from the robots and other Mars missions for the time being. Once the conjunction is over, the spacecraft will send the collected data to NASA’s Deep Space Network. Technicians will then need a full week to download all the data before the spacecraft can return to their normal state. If it is determined that there is corrupt data, that data can usually be sent again after September 7th.