Mars Orbiter Spacecraft under solar conjunction at Mars

Mars Orbiter Spacecraft (MOM) is under ‘solar conjunction’ at Mars, which means the spacecraft, which is orbiting Mars, is behind the Sun as viewed from the Earth.  As a result of this event which happens once in 2.2 years for Mars, communication signals from the spacecraft are severely disrupted by the Sun’s corona (outer atmosphere).  The reason for this is the charged particles from the sun and they are responsible for the reception of noisy signals at the ground antenna from the spacecraft .

The conjunction for Mars Orbiter Spacecraft began on May 27, 2015 and will extend up to July 01, 2015.  No commands are transmitted to the spacecraft during this period for safety reasons and only telemetry (spacecraft’s health related information) is monitored..  All payload (spacecraft’s scientific instruments) operations are also suspended.  Health of the spacecraft is normal.