Although for the time being the return to the Moon is also being postponed – primarily due to the very slow progress of Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship program – the conquest of Mars is also among the more distant plans of the US space agency, NASA.
If and when more serious Martian “traffic” begins, possibly even humans will go to the red planet, reliable data transmission and communication will be of utmost importance, the implementation possibilities of which are already being investigated.
The model of the future system could be the Deep Space Network, an international network of antennas on the ground and in space, managed from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
At the recent meeting of the space agency’s Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group, the construction of the Martian communication network was also on the agenda, and three possible “contractors” were also identified.
Musk is developing Starlink around the Earth at an amazing pace (Image: Joan Cros/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
One of them is Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which provides satellite internet services with its Stralink fleet, which already consists of 7,000 satellites and will later be expanded to 40,000. Musk would certainly be happy to undertake the task, as his old dream is to reach Mars and even establish a colony there – if the fantasist had kept his promises, the first Starship would have already landed on the fourth planet two years ago… The SpaceX offer is of course called Marslink listens.
According to NASA, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin Blue Ring, a multi-purpose satellite, is also an option – in principle, this device can be used for cargo transport, refueling, and data transmission, and the first test mission is currently being planned with the support of the US Department of War, the Pentagon.
A third option could be the mass deployment of Lockheed Martin’s MAVEN satellite – the original device has been in orbit around Mars for a decade now, as of September 2014, its purpose was to study the loss of the planet’s atmosphere. Since then, it has stopped several times due to technical problems, and then it was restarted, but this also shows that it is a durable structure, from which – on the right track – a fleet would be suitable for building a communication network.
Source: www.vezess.hu
