Traffic Jam Above Mars?

That we are obsessed with our neighboring planet is no surprise. Mars is one of the closest celestial bodies that human beings have been able to study from the surface. Sending in probes to the red planet has been a common enough mission. In fact NASA now counts five active mission orbiters around the planet.

Given the fragile nature of the orbiters, and their rather complex systems it is a full time job to ensure that none of the five orbiting space crafts manage to bump into each other as they fly around the planet. So what are these orbiters? NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) and India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) joined the 2003 Mars Express from ESA (the European Space Agency) and two older ones from NASA called the 2001 Mars Odyssey and the 2006 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) last year.

An enhanced collision-avoidance process guidance system ensures that these critters stay out of the way from each other and avoid the big bang that could end a number of science projects riding on them. Perhaps there is a future for air controllers in the skies of Mars as humans keep sending more and more probes out to orbit and study the planet.