Pingie: HTTP:: New Boost for Earth Mars Communications

HTTP:: New Boost for Earth Mars Communications
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Keeping in touch with landers, rovers and orbiters on the Red Planet is not as easy as it may seem. From time to time, the connection goes down for weeks, as the Sun moves in between the two planets, making any sort of radio communications impossible. When this is not the case, the star can still scramble or alter the signals considerably, leading to misinterpretation on one or both ends of the line. An expert from the European Space Agency (ESA), working together with colleagues in the United Kingdom, is now proposing a new method of keeping in touch with assets on Mars.The two main elements in the new idea are continuously-firing ion thrusters â€" of the type currently in use on ESA's GOCE satellite and NASA's Dawn probe, which is powered by three DS1 heritage xenon ion thrusters â€" and a new type of orbit. The latter will not be an “A Orbit,” of the type based on natural laws, but a “B Orbit,” which will absolutely need electric ion propulsion to compensate for !
the planet's gravitational pull. The peculiar orbit will take the pair of communication relay satellites making up the system very close to Mars' surface, and a constant force is required to keep them aloft.The goal of the new configuration is to break the limitations of natural “conjunction,” the phenomenon...
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http://news.softpedia.com/news/New-Boost-for-Earth-Mars-Communications-124591.shtml
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