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On the other hand if we are coming in from space in the first place, it might not be too terribly hard to drop a few satellites off on your way down?
by sliverstorm 11y ago
On the other hand if we are coming in from space in the first place, it might not be too terribly hard to drop a few satellites off on your way down?
- msandford 11y agoFurther if you're not looking for realtime direction finding and you're willing to wait a few minutes for a fix, you can get away with far fewer satellites. Putting 6 small satellites in orbit and getting position fixes every hour would still be way better than nothing.
- scott_karana 11y agoHow would the satellites themselves maintain their proper positions relative to Mars, without ground stations to orient against?
- jessaustin 11y agoWe already stipulated that we're landing something on the surface. That could include a stationary transmitter, which satellites could use to periodically update their location and velocity.
- scott_karana 11y agoYeah, agreed, my comment was meant to politely point out the necessity to the people thinking we could get away with "dropping a few satellites" ;)
- afarrell 11y agoAll of these things can be done remotely without any wetware on Mars.
- scott_karana 11y ago"How?"
- JoeAltmaier 11y agoLike we do everything on and around Mars now.
- Sanddancer 11y agoNeutron stars -- http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/zombie-stars-sidebar.html http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/zombie-stars-si...