NASA reconnects with Mars rovers after Sun blocks signals
NASA is back in touch with its Mars rovers, Perseverance and Curiosity, after a radio blackout caused by the Sun's corona messing with signals earlier this month.
To keep things safe during this "solar conjunction," NASA instituted a moratorium on commands from Dec. 29, 2025 to Jan. 9, 2026.
How did the rovers handle the blackout?
Before going silent, engineers loaded up both rovers with two weeks of instructions—basically telling them to chill in safe spots and keep doing basic science work.
Even without Earth's help for two weeks, they kept snapping photos and collecting data, saving everything onboard.
A picture from Perseverance on January 15 showed Perseverance was still doing fine west of Jezero Crater.
What happens now?
With communications restored, NASA checked the latest images and confirmed everything's working as expected.
They were also working to reconnect with the MAVEN orbiter after it lost contact in December.
Now that the rovers are back online, Mars sample collection and habitability research are picking up speed again.