Communications With Earth: Communication

Not only will the rover send messages directly to the DSN stations, but it will also be able to uplink information to other spacecraft orbiting Mars, utilizing mainly the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey (if necessary) spacecraft as messengers that can pass along news to Earth for the rover. The respective spacecraft will mainly "talk" via their UHF antennas. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter carries an Electra UHF payload that could potentially be very valuable in navigating the Mars Science Laboratory safely toward Mars. The Ka-Band package aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will serve as another possible pipeline to "talk" to the Mars Science Laboratory (read more about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Engineering Instruments ).

The benefits of using the orbiting spacecraft are that the orbiters are closer to the rover than the DSN antennas on Earth and the orbiters have Earth in their field of view for much longer time periods than the rover on the ground.

Because the orbiters will only be between 160 and 250 miles (257 and 400 kilometers) above the surface of Mars, the rover won't have to "yell" as loudly (or use as much energy to send a message) to the orbiters as it will to the antennas on Earth.