known as an "opposition-class" mission, would get the astronauts to Mars in 217 days, give them a 30-day stay, and bring them back in 403 days. In contrast to that 650-day trip, the "conjunction ...

Two options under consideration are a long-stay (or conjunction class ... and a short-stay (or opposition class) mission, which enables significantly less overall time that the astronauts will ...

In around a year it will reach opposition, at which time Mars will ... During the solar conjunction, mission controllers on Earth will lose contact with robotic Mars missions.

Engineers had suspended their contact schedule on November 13 as the Sun-Earth-Probe angle passed below 1* — entering a period known as solar conjunction ... Discovery-class mission for NASA.