Mars to Earth: How to send HD video between planets "It once was
a small step... now it's six big wheels," exclaimed Curiosity's
Twitter account after the Nasa rover landed on Mars in early
August. The message itself took a fraction of a second to post
on the social network. But the media team at Nasa's Jet
Propulsion Lab - who wrote it - had had to wait about a quarter
of an hour for the signal sent by the vehicle confirming its
touchdown to travel from the Red Planet to Earth via radio
waves. The time delay is a result of the fact that data cannot
be sent back faster than the speed of light - real-time
interplanetary conversations are the stuff of science-fiction
fantasy. However, efforts are underway to send more data at once
by increasing the bandwidth available - to one day stream high-
definition (HD) video from the surface of the planet. While
Curiosity was able to send back a small black-and-white image of
its surroundings within a couple of minutes of its touchdown
alert, Nasa's technology is still so