If you like to explore the great outdoors.
you know that
getting a cell-phone signal can sometimes be tricky.
and the Curiosity rover can relate.
Right now. it's exploring a scientifically
important area on Mars.
But talking to Earth has been a serious challenge.
I'm going to explain what's going on
and how we stay connected to Curiosity.
We're here in Curiosity's uplink room at NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This is where
we develop the commands we beam to the rover.
There are two ways we communicate with Curiosity.
We relay information through satellites orbiting Mars.
Or we send a direct signal from Earth to the rover's
high-gain antenna.
We use the orbiters when curiosity
has a lot of information to share.
like the pictures
we stitched together to make these amazing panoramas.
But it's easier to talk directly from Earth through the antenna
when we need to share smaller amounts of information.
like a list of daily commands to the rover.
telling it to wake up and drive.
The trick is making sure the antenna can point to Earth.
And that hasn't been easy lately.
Right now Curiosity is exploring.
Gediz Vallis Channel.
This is where it discovered
pure sulfur for the first time ever on Mars.
But there's
a huge mountain to our east
and it could block our line of sight to the rover's antenna.
Curiosity knows how to point its antenna at Earth.
but it doesn't know about the mountain.
Normally. Earth is very high in the Martian sky
when we talk to Curiosity.
But right now. Mars and Earth
are in a season when the Earth appears much lower in the sky.
And the Earth can disappear behind the mountain.
Luckily. Curiosity's team has special
tools and mapping software.
The dark shaded regions show
where the eastern mountain would block signals from Earth.
This helps us know what time of day to send commands.
Starting in September.
Earth will begin to rise in the Martian sky.
And the rover will begin
driving away from the eastern mountain.
So pretty soon. talking to Curiosity will get a lot easier.
Just like getting a cellphone signal on your hike.