Space organizations with crafts on or around Mars will soon lose all connection as the planet temporarily 'vanishes' from our night sky.
This special circumstance arises every two years as a result of a phenomenon called solar conjunction. The solar conjunction ban that applies to Mars spacecraft commands this year is set to run from November 11 to November 25, during which time Mars will be in 2 degrees of solar proximity.
The term "solar conjunction" refers to the moment when the Sun blocks out Earth and Mars in their ongoing orbit around it. Because of this alignment, the two planets appear to be momentarily invisible to one another, as to dancers on either side of a huge bonfire.
Due to the Sun's interference with radio broadcasts, communication with any spacecraft in solar conjunction will be severely limited during this time.
Space organisations have been continuously present on Mars for more than 20 years, employing spacecraft to investigate the possibility that life once existed there. On the other hand, these spacecraft go through a two-week communication blackout during solar conjunction.
Space agency mission controllers have devised a number of techniques to navigate through this phase. While data is gathered and stored from other equipment, some are switched off. Even though they are well aware that some data may be lost, they occasionally continue to provide data to Earth.
During solar conjunction, no fresh commands are transmitted to Mars. A possible concern to the spacecraft is the uncertainty of what data could be lost as a result of interference by charged particles from the Sun. Rather, engineers wait and send instructions two weeks ahead of time.
Scientists and space enthusiasts alike are excited about the abundance of information and discoveries that lie beyond the Sun as we wait for Mars to resurface in our night sky.