For most of April, while Mars is behind the Sun as seen from Earth, no commands are being sent to MSL.
For most of April, while Mars is behind the Sun as seen from Earth, no commands are being sent to MSL. Before the start of the solar conjunction stand-down, the rover was programmed to acquire radiation and weather data every day. The Sun interferes with radio waves that pass close to it, but we have received a bit of data anyway, enough to know that the rover is healthy and running the command sequences as planned.
Written by Ken Herkenhoff, Planetary Geologist at USGS Astrogeology Science Center
