This probably has more to do with the massive antenna (also known as a radio telescope) here on earth that are used to pick up the signal. Fortunately a few suc

This probably has more to do with the massive antenna (also known as a radio telescope) here on earth that are used to pick up the signal. Fortunately a few such antenna exist around the globe, so Mars should be in view of one of these antennas at all times. According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Space_Network http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Space_Network), radio telescope complexes used by NASA are located at: Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex near Barstow, California, USA Robledo de Chavela near Madrid, Spain Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex near Canberra, Australia