The 2009 Mars Telecommunications Orbiter
Abstract
The first spacecraft with a primary function of providing communication links while orbiting a foreign planet has begun development for a launch in 2009. NASA's Mars Telecommunications Orbiter would use three radio bands to magnify the benefits of other future Mars missions and enable some types of missions otherwise impractical. It would serve as the Mars hub for a growing interplanetary Internet. And it would pioneer the use of planet-to-planet laser communications to demonstrate the possibility for even great networking capabilities in the future. During its nearly 10-year mission in orbit, Mars Telecommunications Orbiter would aid navigation of arriving spacecraft to their martian landing sites and monitor critical events during landings and orbit insertions. In addition, it would enable data-transmission volumes great enough to bring a virtual Mars presence to the public through a range of Internet and video features.
- Publication:
-
35th COSPAR Scientific Assembly
- Pub Date:
- 2004
- Bibcode:
- 2004cosp...35.3075W