NASA is about to cut communications with its rovers and other robotic explorers on the Red Planet. But there’s a good reason behind the move and normal operations will resume soon. The downtime is important as the current orbits of Earth and Mars mean both planets are on opposite sides of the Sun, a situation that occurs every two years.
This positioning is called solar conjunction, affects NASA’s communications signals, and could disrupt commands beamed at Perseverance, Ingenuity, Curiosity, InSight lander, and three Mars orbiters. In a worst-case scenario, half-baked commands could knock the explorers out of action.
Rovers will continue to work
But the shutdown of communications will be done for some time, from October 2 through October 16. The rovers are being given fairly simple instructions to carry out while the ground team is out of touch. This will keep them functional and won’t allow them to hang around the Martian surface. Any data gathered during this time will be stored and sent back to Earth once communications resume in mid-October. NASA has also shared what each explorer will be doing during the break.
Speaking of Mars, a lot of data has pointed out that the planet was once much more watery, like Earth. Today, however, there appears to be no liquid water on the planet’s surface and scientists have suggested many possible explanations for the planet’s current situation.
Mars could have the next human base
It’s possible that a period of volcanic activity changed the climate of the planet, while another popular theory suggests the planet’s lack of a strong magnetic field let all the water drift out into space. A new study suggests a more basic reason for the lack of water on Mars: it’s just too small in size.
Scientists at the University of Manchester have suggested a new method to convert Martian soil into a stronger material to construct future colonies on Mars. They suggest mixing human blood, sweat, urine, and even tears with Moon or Martian dust to create an adhesive that can come in handy to build (3D print) entire structures.
