(CNN) Things are about to get a little quiet between NASA and its fleet of robotic Mars explorers. That's because an expected communication breakdown is about to happen, all thanks to the sun.
NASA Mars missions facing 2-week communications blackout as sun blocks Red Planet | Space
NASA plans to pause most of its robotic Mars exploration efforts in October for safety reasons associated with the Red Planet's position in space.
On Oct. 7, Mars will reach a position in its orbit called solar conjunction, which happens every two years when the planet moves behind the sun from Earth's perspective. The sun's hot outer atmosphere, or corona, lying in the line of sight, may disrupt interplanetary communications, NASA noted.
Mars helicopter Ingenuity aborted latest flight attempt because of anomaly | Space
Ingenuity was scheduled to make its 14th Red Planet sortie on Sept. 18, a relatively short and simple hop that would have demonstrated the little chopper's ability to fly with slightly higher rotor speeds — 2,700 revolutions per minute (RPM) rather than the usual 2,537 RPM.
Catastrophic floods shaped Mars more than previously thought, scientists suggest | Space
Catastrophic floods from overflowing lakes on early Mars may have carved out many of the Red Planet's valleys, a new study finds.
Although Mars is now cold and dry, decades of evidence suggest it was once covered with rivers, streams, ponds, lakes and perhaps even seas and oceans. One set of marks all that water left behind come in the form of a network of valleys etched across the Red Planet.
Valleys on Mars' Barren Surface Carved by Huge Floods Billions of Years Ago
Massive floods from overflowing and rupturing lakes carved deep chasms into the face of Mars during its ancient history, according to new research.
The research, led by scientists at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin, could grant insights into how the now dry network of river valleys formed across the Martian surface.
Using dunes to interpret wind on Mars -- ScienceDaily
Dunes develop when wind-blown sand organizes into patterns, most often in deserts and arid or semi-arid parts of the world. Every continent on Earth has dune fields, but dunes and dune-like sand patterns are also found across the solar system: on Mars, Venus, Titan, Comet 67P, and Pluto.
On other planets and planetary bodies, we do not yet have weather stations measuring the winds (with a few recent exceptions on Mars only).
University Teams Demonstrate 'Cool' New Technologies for Moon, Mars | NASA
An Analog Mission to "Mars" Was a Crash Course On Humanity - Best Indian American
I zipped my suitcase closed as I went through my packing list one last time, late on a Thursday night in April: "Socks, check. Boots, check. Astronaut flight suit, hand tools, and prerecorded messages from my loved ones. Check, check, check!
In recent years, revolutionary advances in rocket reusability, advanced manufacturing techniques, and system safety have bolstered the cadence and affordability of human spaceflight missions. For example, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket costs about $62 million , compared to an average cost of
How much carbon dioxide snow falls every winter on Mars?
The study that describes their findings was led by Haifeng Xiao, a research assistant with the Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformation Science at the Berlin Technical University.
What we know about the Martian polar ice caps indicates that they are composed of three parts.
"Each Martian year, approximately 30% of the atmosphere's CO 2 mass is in vivid exchange with the polar surfaces through the seasonal deposition/sublimation.
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