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Mars Telecommunications Orbiter:
MTO Will Extend the Internet to Mars
NASA will extend the Internet to Mars with the launch of the Mars Telecommunications Orbiter in 2009.
A NASA JPL artist imagines a laser beam from the Mars Telecommunications Orbiter carrying science data from the Red Planet to Earth as an interplanetary extension of the Internet. CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE
The MTO spacecraft will arrive in a high orbit above Mars in 2010 and then be used to relay Internet-style data packets to Earth from a variety of Mars landers and orbiters for as much as ten years.
Such a dedicated communications satellite will be necessary due to the vast quantity of science information to be sent to Earth by such landers as the roving Mars Science Laboratory of 2009.
MTO firsts. Mars Telecommunications Orbiter will be that planet's first high-speed data connection and the first interplanetary spacecraft dedicated to providing communications services to other spacecraft.
The spacecraft will orbit the Red Planet at a higher altitude than most other orbiters so it can provide effective relay of science data from surface missions on the ground such as the roving Mars Science Laboratory.
MTO will communicate with Earth on two radio wavelength bands and also by an optical laser communicator.
Internet hub. MTO will be the hub of a growing interplanetary Internet on Mars.
A NASA JPL artist imagines a group of satellites around Mars providing navigation and communication for robots and humans down on the Red Planet, while a larger spacecraft ensures the Mars-Earth connection. CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE
It will link NASA's orbiting spacecraft Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Europešs Mars Express Orbiter, and the Mars Science Laboratory on the surface.
Future landers, rovers, science stations, and orbiting spacecraft all will communicate with each other and with Earth by sending and receiving signals via MTO.
NASA plans to land the Mars Science Laboratory a month after the Mars Telecommunications Orbiter enters orbit above the planet. The lab will send out a robot rover to make detailed scientific observations of the martian surface.
High in the martian sky. MTO will orbit the Red Planet at an altitude of about 3,000 miles. That's 20 times farther from the planet's surface than other spacecraft. From up there, MTO will nearly always have a direct line of sight to Earth so it can be in contact with the home planet nearly around the clock.
Laser beam. In addition to communicating at radio frequencies, the Mars Telecommunications Orbiter will use a laser beam for planet-to-planet communications.
The lasers will transmit and receive signals using near-infrared light. That's just beyond the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum seen by the human eye.
While such optical communications signals are more susceptible to interference from clouds, they can transmit 10,000 times more data than microwave communications.
A whole lot of data. MTO will relay the equivalent of three full compact disks of data to Earth each day during its 10-year working life.
Tiny companion. Mars Telecommunications Orbiter will release a small satellite – a sphere the size of a soccer ball. MTO will track the device as it orbits Mars.
The robot Mars Sample Return mission in 2013 will collect and bring Mars rocks back to Earth. Successful retrieval of those samples will depend on an orbiting spacecraft to accurately track and intercept the sample container launched from the martian surface. MTO's tracking of its small satellite will demonstrate such a capability.
