Do. 1  Do spend some time understanding the point of what you are about to write. 2  Do make lists. 3  Do use an appropriate tone. 4  Do write several drafts of each paragraph. 5  Do compare your first draft copy with other material from previous issues of the journal or website.
Mars is so far away in fact that it takes radio signals quite a long time to get from the spacecraft back to Earth. During Curiosity EDL, this delay will be 13 minutes, 48 seconds, about mid-way between the minimum delay of around 4 minutes and the maximum of around 24 minutes.
Radio signals are electromagnetic waves, such as light or X-ray. The speed of electromagnetic waves in vacuum, is 300000km/sec (approximately). In order to calculate the time of travel with this speed from Earth to Mars, we need to know the distance. When the Mars and the Earth are at the opposite sides of the Sun, the distance is the largest: approximately: 378 million km. The time needed for an electromagnetic wave to cover this distance is approximately: 21 minute. The closest distance between Mars and Earth is 78 million km, the time in this case is: 4.3 min. So the time of travel between Earth and Mars is between 4.3 minutes and 21 minutes, depending on the actual distance between the two planets.