Space exploration has many difficulties the typical person might not even know. Most recently, space exploration had to overcome the solar conjunction disrupting communication to Mars spacecraft.
A solar conjunction is when a planet or other celestial object is on the opposite side of the Sun and the Earth, In other words, the Sun is directly between the Earth and another object in space.
Mars has a solar conjunction every 2 years, disrupting communication from Earth to Mars. The length of time communication is disturbed is dependent on the size and power of the Mars spacecraft’s communication equipment. The most recent solar conjunction lasted from the middle of November to early December.
During a solar conjunction, the Sun’s atmosphere interferes with interplanetary communications. In response, NASA along with other space agencies ceased sending commands to the spacecrafts to eliminate the possibility of a corrupt command getting through.
Instead, Curiosity, the Mars rover, followed a set of instructions uploaded ahead of the solar conjunction in October.
Freshman Shuban Nanisetty relates his experience in robotics to the NASA rover. “In robotics competitions there is an autonomous and tele-Op portion of the game. The autonomous portion is when a robot operates based on preloaded instructions, much like the Mars spacecraft during the solar conjunction. Tele-Op is when a robot is controlled in real time with a controller. While the robot can accomplish a lot during autonomous, it is often a lot easier to accomplish tasks during tele-Op due to the ability to respond to unforeseen events”
Nanisetty further explores the disadvantages of autonomous rovers. “There is only so much you can do with preloaded instructions in a rover or robot. It is vital to have the ability to actively send commands to a rover or robot in order to have the most efficiency in completing tasks,” he stated.
Junior Rithik Vijaykumar adds to the parallels between rovers and robots. “When you preload instructions onto something like a robot or a rover there is always a chance it doesn’t work. The use of preloaded instructions in robotics often results in moments where the robot doesn’t do what you wanted it to do. This is difficult with preloaded instructions as you aren’t actively controlling the robot, meaning you can’t do anything about the mishaps,” he stated.
The solar conjunction had just ended and as far as NASA can tell, the rover didn’t sustain any damage. During the conjunction, the rover performed atmospheric measuring and took argon measurements.
As the solar conjunction ends and communication is regained, NASA plans to send out new commands for Curiosity. These plans consist of more atmospheric reading post conjunction which will be done with a navigation camera (Navcam) sky survey, Navcam cloud altitude movie, Navcam dust devil survey and suprahorizon images. These images will be taken using nine three-frame movies forming a dome around the rover to look at clouds across the entire sky.
Along with Curiosity, Perseverance and Ingenuity will begin to receive new commands from Earth, now that the solar conjunction has ended.
Ingenuity is a 4 pound helicopter that flies around the red planet to scout for Perseverance. Ingenuity has proved aerial exploration of Mars as possible and completed a 393 meter flight shortly after the conjunction ended.
Perseverance is 10 feet long, 9 feet wide and 7 feet tall, making it about the size of a car. Perseverance has been sampling the Jezero Crater since 2021 in attempts to find signs for ancient life on Mars and will continue to do so with the end of the solar conjunction.
The three space crafts are seemingly unfazed by the effects of the solar conjunction. The overcoming of this obstacle shows NASA’s ability to continue exploration during adversity on the red planet in order to continue the search for signs of life.
