It will be a long time before astronauts land on Mars, but it’s never too soon to figure out how they can access the internet while they are there. Right? Scientists are just beginning to figure out how that would work, Claire Parfitt, Systems Engineer with the European Space Agency in Noordwijk, Netherlands, told Science News Explores.
With current technology, streaming a movie to the Red Planet would take up to 40 minutes and it could not be stored.
Two researchers, Tobias Pfandzelter and David Bermbach, who work at Technische Universität Berlin, Germany, have proposed that a fleet of 81 LEO satellites circling Mars would provide the Red Planet with its own internet, according to the publication.
Placing satellites in orbit around is less expensive than landing equipment on another planet. Those satellites could use radio waves — or optical waves, if laser tech is ready.
The Earth’s moon is currently the proving ground for expeditions to Mars. As a matter of course, the ESA has invited private space companies to set up satellites around the moon, which would allow people on the far side of the moon to communicate with the Earth. The first phase of the program will begin with the Lunar Pathfinder orbiter launch in 2026.
Having the internet on Mars seems a long way off. However, an ultra-high definition video featuring a cat named Taters has already been streamed from nearly 19 million miles away (or about 80 times the Earth-Moon distance) in a laser communications demonstration by NASA. The agency’s Deep Space Optical Communications experiment aboard the recently launched Psyche spacecraft sent the 15-second video, which features an orange tabby cat chasing a red laser, back to Earth.
By J. Sharpe Smith, Inside Towers Technology Editor
Reader Interactions