HPPR hosts & contributors Sun August 5, 2012 Waiting For A Sign:
Mars Rover To Land On Its Own Originally published on Sun August
5, 2012 10:49 pm If all goes according to plan, the Mars Science
Laboratory, nicknamed Curiosity, will land gently on Mars at
10:31 PDT Sunday night. The rover's entry, descent and landing
will last for a total of seven minutes. During that time, the
rover must slow down from 13,000 mph to a dead-stop touchdown on
the surface of Mars. When you've spent $2.5 billion on a
mission, you probably want to check in on how it's doing once in
a while. So how will scientists be communicating with a
spacecraft that's 154 million miles away? Richard Kornfeld, a
senior engineer on the Mars landing team, says there are two
ways to keep in touch: One is a radio system that can transmit a
signal directly from the spacecraft to Earth; another requires
the radio signal to be relayed through satellites that are
orbiting Mars. Kornfeld says there are three of those
satellites: the Mars Reconnaissance