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Regarding #4; it would be nice to see someone pursuing a project to put a set of comms satellites in orbit around Mars to significantly improve this coverage.

by ErrantX 14y ago

Regarding #4; it would be nice to see someone pursuing a project to put a set of comms satellites in orbit around Mars to significantly improve this coverage. If we are going to be making these efforts at Mars in the future (whether autonomous or manned) it seems worth the investment :)

masklinn 14y ago
> it would be nice to see someone pursuing a project to put a set of comms satellites in orbit around Mars to significantly improve this coverage. Would that really change anything? A higher bandwidth between the rover and Mars's lower orbit will not make the link between Mars and Earth much faster, and that's the true bottleneck. Not to mention wireless communications are not "free" as any smartphone owner probably knows and the rover's daily energy budget is pretty much fixed, the more the rover stays in contact with Mars's lower orbit, the less energy it has to drive around or fire its lasers. And finally, for what it's worth, the MRO is already "significant improve[ment of] coverage".
- ZoFreX 14y ago
  > Would that really change anything? Yes. The rover is only in communication with its satellite for a limited time frame each day, and the satellite <-> earth link is wider than the satellite <-> rover link. With more satellites we could have around the clock high speed link up, and improve the bandwidth - future missions are likely to be loaded with more and/or higher bandwidth sensors.
- ErrantX 14y ago
  > and that's the true bottleneck. Are you sure? My understanding was that the biggest bottleneck lay in the fact that the orbiters could only communicated with the lander for 8 minutes per day. Fairly crippling :) > Not to mention wireless communications are not "free" as any smartphone owner probably knows and the rover's daily energy budget is pretty much fixed I understood the energy source gave a fixed output - it's not a daily budger per se. So 2 hours communications (rather than 8 minutes) wouldn't leave it unable to move for the rest of the day. I could be wrong. However; if it takes a week to send it an update - or to receive big pictures - that implies delays in its work anyway. I agree that the MRO is a significant improvement. I was just idly pointing out that if the aim is to go to Mars more it would be worth investing in infrastructure as much as science.

by ErrantX 14y ago

masklinn 14y ago

> it would be nice to see someone pursuing a project to put a set of comms satellites in orbit around Mars to significantly improve this coverage. Would that really change anything? A higher bandwidth between the rover and Mars's lower orbit will not make the link between Mars and Earth much faster, and that's the true bottleneck. Not to mention wireless communications are not "free" as any smartphone owner probably knows and the rover's daily energy budget is pretty much fixed, the more the rover stays in contact with Mars's lower orbit, the less energy it has to drive around or fire its lasers. And finally, for what it's worth, the MRO is already "significant improve[ment of] coverage".

ZoFreX 14y ago
> Would that really change anything? Yes. The rover is only in communication with its satellite for a limited time frame each day, and the satellite <-> earth link is wider than the satellite <-> rover link. With more satellites we could have around the clock high speed link up, and improve the bandwidth - future missions are likely to be loaded with more and/or higher bandwidth sensors.
ErrantX 14y ago
> and that's the true bottleneck. Are you sure? My understanding was that the biggest bottleneck lay in the fact that the orbiters could only communicated with the lander for 8 minutes per day. Fairly crippling :) > Not to mention wireless communications are not "free" as any smartphone owner probably knows and the rover's daily energy budget is pretty much fixed I understood the energy source gave a fixed output - it's not a daily budger per se. So 2 hours communications (rather than 8 minutes) wouldn't leave it unable to move for the rest of the day. I could be wrong. However; if it takes a week to send it an update - or to receive big pictures - that implies delays in its work anyway. I agree that the MRO is a significant improvement. I was just idly pointing out that if the aim is to go to Mars more it would be worth investing in infrastructure as much as science.