The plan was cancelled on July 21, 2005 due to funding problems.
Detailed Introduction
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NASA's Mars communication orbiter is the first one to take the relay communication with the Earth as the basic goal to go to another planetSpace probe。In fact, it will become a Mars communication relay station of the growing interplanetary Internet.Mars rovers, scientific observatories and spacecraft in Mars orbit will communicate with the Earth through the Mars communication orbiter.It will be able to maintain communication with the Earth almost at any time, because its orbit is 20 times farther from the surface than other detectors, which means that it can almost always see the Earth directly.The Mars communication orbiter will operate at an altitude of 5000 kilometers above the surface of Mars.
In addition to being able to send and receive signals at the frequencies of radio waves and microwaves, the Mars communication orbiter will also become a pioneer in the use of laser communications between planets.The laser that sends and receives the signal is near-infrared light - the electromagnetic wave frequency just beyond the visible frequency of the human eye.The signal will travel tens of millions of kilometers into space.Although optical communications are more susceptible to cloud impacts, they have the potential to transmit data with 10000 times the bandwidth of microwave communications.
During its 10-year in orbit mission, the Mars communication orbiter will be able to send data equivalent to three CDs to the Earth every day.These include those fromMars Science LaboratoryThe Mars Science Laboratory will land on the surface of Mars one month after the Mars communication orbiter enters the orbit around Mars, release a robotic rover, and conduct more detailed scientific investigation on the surface of Mars than ever before.
The Mars Communication Orbiter will also carry a ball the size of a football and track it after it is released into orbit around Mars.This experiment will support the Mars sample return mission launched by NASA in 2013 using robots to bring Martian rocks back to Earth.Successful sample acquisition requires that spacecraft operating in orbit must be able to accurately track and intercept sample containers launched from the surface of Mars.
