Philip P. Ide

Author, programmer, science enthusiast, half-wit.
Life is sweet. Have you tasted it lately?

User Tools

Site Tools

Trace:
blog:articles:info:mars_solar_conjunction

Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

Link to this comparison view

Both sides previous revisionPrevious revision
Next revision		Previous revision
blog:articles:info:mars_solar_conjunction [2019/09/04 10:56] – Phil Ideblog:articles:info:mars_solar_conjunction [2022/09/11 10:16] (current) – Phil Ide
Line 1: Line 1:
 +~~NOCACHE~~
 ====== Mars Solar Conjunction ====== ====== Mars Solar Conjunction ======
 {{:blog:articles:science:mars-730x410.jpg?direct&600|}} {{:blog:articles:science:mars-730x410.jpg?direct&600|}}
  
-//This page is currently **active** for 2019 conjunction//+//This page is currently **INACTIVE** for 2021 conjunction//
  
 Mars is heading for a solar conjunction, which in layman's terms means it's on the opposite side of the sun from the Earth. For a short period, no commands will be sent to the Mars spacecraft (which includes landers and rovers) since the sun's corona could corrupt those commands and result in unintended actions, disablement of the spacecraft or worse. Mars is heading for a solar conjunction, which in layman's terms means it's on the opposite side of the sun from the Earth. For a short period, no commands will be sent to the Mars spacecraft (which includes landers and rovers) since the sun's corona could corrupt those commands and result in unintended actions, disablement of the spacecraft or worse.
Line 11: Line 12:
 > On the surface of Mars, the Curiosity rover will stop driving, while the InSight lander won't move its robotic arm. Above Mars, both the Odyssey orbiter and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will continue collecting data from Curiosity and InSight for return to Earth. However, only Odyssey will attempt to relay that data to Earth before conjunction ends. Meantime, another orbiter, MAVEN, will continue to collect its own science data but won't support any relay operations during this time. > On the surface of Mars, the Curiosity rover will stop driving, while the InSight lander won't move its robotic arm. Above Mars, both the Odyssey orbiter and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will continue collecting data from Curiosity and InSight for return to Earth. However, only Odyssey will attempt to relay that data to Earth before conjunction ends. Meantime, another orbiter, MAVEN, will continue to collect its own science data but won't support any relay operations during this time.
  
-The period of this 'limited operation' is from **Aug 28<sup>th</sup>** to **Sep 7<sup>th</sup>**. Note that Mars reaches aphelion (furthest distance from the sun) on Aug 26<sup>th</sup>.+The period of this 'limited operation' is from **Oct 2<sup>nd</sup>** to **Oct 14<sup>th</sup> 2021**.
  
 This will affect the data on the [[blog:aardvaark:mars_weather|Mars Weather]] page, and may result in another data dropout, although it's possible there might be a catch-up at the end of this period. This will affect the data on the [[blog:aardvaark:mars_weather|Mars Weather]] page, and may result in another data dropout, although it's possible there might be a catch-up at the end of this period.
Line 17: Line 18:
 During the period leading up to and through the conjunction, you can follow the progress of Earth and Mars in the two images below, which will be updated daily. Click on the images to enlarge. During the period leading up to and through the conjunction, you can follow the progress of Earth and Mars in the two images below, which will be updated daily. Click on the images to enlarge.
  
-//Last updated: Sep 4<sup>th</sup> 2019//+//Last updated: Oct 15<sup>th</sup> 2021//
  
-{{ :blog:aardvaark:mars_conjunction.png?direct |}}+{{ :blog:aardvaark:solar_system.png?direct |}}
 <html><small></html>Image courtesy of https://in-the-sky.org/solarsystem.php?obj=P4 and © Dominic Ford<html></small></html> <html><small></html>Image courtesy of https://in-the-sky.org/solarsystem.php?obj=P4 and © Dominic Ford<html></small></html>
  
 {{ :blog:articles:info:mars24_conjunction.png?direct |}} {{ :blog:articles:info:mars24_conjunction.png?direct |}}
 <html><small>Image courtesy of Mars24 &copy; Robert B. Schmunk</small></html> <html><small>Image courtesy of Mars24 &copy; Robert B. Schmunk</small></html>
blog/articles/info/mars_solar_conjunction.1567594596.txt.gz · Last modified: by Phil Ide
Except where otherwise noted, content on this wiki is licensed under the following license: Copyright © Phil Ide
Donate Powered by PHP Valid HTML5 Valid CSS Driven by DokuWiki