Mars missions face communications blackout as sun blocks it

INA - SOURCES 

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.

"That could corrupt commands and result in unexpected behavior from our deep space explorers," NASA said in a statement, referring to its three orbiters, two rovers, one lander and one helicopter all doing operations from the Red Planet. Solar conjunction will also affect other missions at Mars from Europe, China and India, although those agencies haven't yet detailed their plans for the conjunction period.