What is Mars??
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and is the second smallest planet in the solar system. Named after the Roman god of war, Mars is also often described as the “Red Planet” due to its reddish appearance. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere composed primarily of carbon dioxide.How does the Mars base communicate with Earth?
All communication between Mars and Earth goes through
satellites. Because of the distance, there is a substantial delay. As
communication signals travel at the speed of light, this means that it can take
between 3 and 22 minutes for the information to reach the other end, so a phone
call would not be practical. Fortunately, there would be no limitations to
email, texting or 'WhatsApping' with the Mars residents. It'll just take at
least 6 minutes for you to get your reply. Both voicemail and video messages
are also easily workable options.
How do the Mars rovers communicate with Earth?
X-band radio waves used by the rover to communicate
The rover communicates with the orbiters and the DSN through
radio waves. They communicate with each other through X-band, which are radio
waves at a much higher frequency than radio waves used for FM stations
The radio waves to and from the rover are sent through the
orbiters using UHF antennas, which are close-range antennas that are like
walkie-talkies compared to the long range of low-gain and high-gain antennas.
When the rover speaks directly to Earth (from the surface of
Mars), it sends messages via its high-gain antenna (HGA). The high-gain antenna
can send a "beam" of information in a specific direction and it is
steerable, so the antenna can move to point itself directly to any antenna on
Earth. The benefit of having a steerable antenna is that the entire rover
doesn't necessarily have to change positions to talk to Earth. Like turning
your neck to talk to someone beside you rather than turning your entire body,
the rover can save energy by moving only the antenna.
We can use these methods to communicate people on mars until new methods of communications are introduced.