Next Month, Mars Solar Conjunction Means Vacation For NASA Teams

The sun will get in the way of Earth and Mars, blocking communications. For the scientists and engineers working on NASA's Mars program, an upcoming alignment of the planets presages some possible good news. Thanks to the sun, it's spring break time. Every 26 months or so, Mars and Earth are on opposite sides of the sun from each other, which means communications are lousy between the two planets. This is called a Mars solar conjunction. Basically what happens is the sun interrupts radio transmi...