WASHINGTON: NASA will refrain from sending commands to its three orbiters and two rovers on Mars later this month, as the movement of planets will curtail communication between the Earth and the red planet.
This month, movement of the planets will put Mars almost directly behind the Sun, from Earth's perspective, causing curtailed communications between Earth and Mars, NASA said.
The US space agency said it will refrain from sending commands to the three Mars orbiters and two rovers during the period from July 22 to August 1.
"Out of caution, we would not talk to our Mars assets during that period because we expect significant degradation in the communication link, and we do not want to take a chance that one of our spacecraft would act on a corrupted command," said Chad Edwards, from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California.
Data will keep coming from Mars to Earth, although loss or corruption of some bits is anticipated and the data will be retransmitted later. Read more...
This month, movement of the planets will put Mars almost directly behind the Sun, from Earth's perspective, causing curtailed communications between Earth and Mars, NASA said.
The US space agency said it will refrain from sending commands to the three Mars orbiters and two rovers during the period from July 22 to August 1.
"Out of caution, we would not talk to our Mars assets during that period because we expect significant degradation in the communication link, and we do not want to take a chance that one of our spacecraft would act on a corrupted command," said Chad Edwards, from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California.
Data will keep coming from Mars to Earth, although loss or corruption of some bits is anticipated and the data will be retransmitted later. Read more...