Mars Rover landing today

[k0ua]

If you're talking about the helicopter that is with the rover...it is autonomous...a program is sent to the system and it follows the program,,,,,there is no remote controls etc...same as the rover...all done with command and control scripts...

Depending on the relative positions of earth and mars, it can take between 5 and 20 minutes for a signal to get to mars. SO if you moved your joystick down here on earth it could take between 5 and 20 minutes for the signal to get to the helicopter and just as long for the result of that movement to be detected down here. That would make for a rather difficult control of a moving object like a helicopter that can crash in a heartbeat. There is no way it can be controlled in real time from the earth. The speed of light (and radio waves) is just too slow.

 

[k0ua]

Even " back in the day" when I used to send signals thru the amateur radio satellite called OSCAR 13 that was in a Molniya orbit around the earth, when the satellite was about 30,000 km from the earth and listening to the downlink frequency of your own uplink transmission the delay was very noticeable. If you said "hello" and you could hear your own "hello" coming back. And that is just an earth orbiting satellite. Let alone trying to remote control something as far as Mars. Light moves at about 186,000 miles per second. And that is very slow.

 

[/pine]

Communications - NASA Mars

 

[Wakey]

I believe 3 different countries will have arrivals at Mars in the next 2 weeks.

 

[bcp]

I believe 3 different countries will have arrivals at Mars in the next 2 weeks.

Bruce

 

[/pine]

One thing that came to mind as the craft was about to start the sky crane operation was there was no hesitation...like they must have been very close to the exact spot they were aiming for...

 

[Diggin It]

 

[sd455dan]

Even " back in the day" when I used to send signals thru the amateur radio satellite called OSCAR 13 that was in a Molniya orbit around the earth, when the satellite was about 30,000 km from the earth and listening to the downlink frequency of your own uplink transmission the delay was very noticeable. If you said "hello" and you could hear your own "hello" coming back. And that is just an earth orbiting satellite. Let alone trying to remote control something as far as Mars. Light moves at about 186,000 miles per second. And that is very slow.

Yep- Apollo 17 is another example, the liftoff was timed with the camera operator gimballing the Camera from earth before the LM actually took off so that the camera tracked the spacecraft at the correct moment, he did a darn good job. Previous launches were not successful at videoing the launch.

 

[tallyho8]

I missed it. Where can I see a rerun?

 

[/pine]

I missed it. Where can I see a rerun?

Still waiting on some pics from the actual lander...everything else is simulation... check the NASA site for the latest...