Why not a “live” visual connection with Curiosity on Mars all the time?
up vote
7
down vote
favorite
Note: Got the idea for this question by @uhoh's question: "Has anything close to video ("live" or otherwise) been shot in space from beyond the Moon ?
To have the "feeling" of a "live" connection with the Curiosity rover on Mars, why not send from there a real-time HD picture every 10 or 20 seconds for instance to be seen "directly" on NASA television ?
To give the inhabitants of the Earth the opportunity to experience what it's like to be on Mars.
mars photography curiosity data-transmission image-processing
asked 2 days ago
Conelisinspace
9271535
|
show 1 more comment
up vote
7
down vote
favorite
Note: Got the idea for this question by @uhoh's question: "Has anything close to video ("live" or otherwise) been shot in space from beyond the Moon ?
To have the "feeling" of a "live" connection with the Curiosity rover on Mars, why not send from there a real-time HD picture every 10 or 20 seconds for instance to be seen "directly" on NASA television ?
To give the inhabitants of the Earth the opportunity to experience what it's like to be on Mars.
mars photography curiosity data-transmission image-processing
asked 2 days ago
Conelisinspace
9271535
3
This is related to, but different than Could “live” video be transmitted from Mars?
– uhoh
2 days ago
2
There is night and day not only on Earth but on Mars too.
– Uwe
2 days ago
The question is how much power does that take?
– marshal craft
yesterday
1
Who pays the bill for using so much precious DSN time for transmission of images with very few changes?
– Uwe
13 hours ago
@Uwe You're right, it doesn't make sense when there are no changes. The MSL image archive is a good alternative. When there are changes, a video could be made.
– Conelisinspace
12 hours ago
|
show 1 more comment
up vote
7
down vote
favorite
up vote
7
down vote
favorite
Note: Got the idea for this question by @uhoh's question: "Has anything close to video ("live" or otherwise) been shot in space from beyond the Moon ?
To have the "feeling" of a "live" connection with the Curiosity rover on Mars, why not send from there a real-time HD picture every 10 or 20 seconds for instance to be seen "directly" on NASA television ?
To give the inhabitants of the Earth the opportunity to experience what it's like to be on Mars.
mars photography curiosity data-transmission image-processing
asked 2 days ago
Conelisinspace
9271535
Note: Got the idea for this question by @uhoh's question: "Has anything close to video ("live" or otherwise) been shot in space from beyond the Moon ?
To have the "feeling" of a "live" connection with the Curiosity rover on Mars, why not send from there a real-time HD picture every 10 or 20 seconds for instance to be seen "directly" on NASA television ?
To give the inhabitants of the Earth the opportunity to experience what it's like to be on Mars.
mars photography curiosity data-transmission image-processing
mars photography curiosity data-transmission image-processing
asked 2 days ago
Conelisinspace
9271535
asked 2 days ago
Conelisinspace
9271535
edited 2 days ago
asked 2 days ago
Conelisinspace
9271535
asked 2 days ago
Conelisinspace
9271535
asked 2 days ago
Conelisinspace
9271535
9271535
3
This is related to, but different than Could “live” video be transmitted from Mars?
– uhoh
2 days ago
2
There is night and day not only on Earth but on Mars too.
– Uwe
2 days ago
The question is how much power does that take?
– marshal craft
yesterday
1
Who pays the bill for using so much precious DSN time for transmission of images with very few changes?
– Uwe
13 hours ago
@Uwe You're right, it doesn't make sense when there are no changes. The MSL image archive is a good alternative. When there are changes, a video could be made.
– Conelisinspace
12 hours ago
|
show 1 more comment
3
This is related to, but different than Could “live” video be transmitted from Mars?
– uhoh
2 days ago
2
There is night and day not only on Earth but on Mars too.
– Uwe
2 days ago
The question is how much power does that take?
– marshal craft
yesterday
1
Who pays the bill for using so much precious DSN time for transmission of images with very few changes?
– Uwe
13 hours ago
@Uwe You're right, it doesn't make sense when there are no changes. The MSL image archive is a good alternative. When there are changes, a video could be made.
– Conelisinspace
12 hours ago
3
3
This is related to, but different than Could “live” video be transmitted from Mars?
– uhoh
2 days ago
This is related to, but different than Could “live” video be transmitted from Mars?
– uhoh
2 days ago
2
2
There is night and day not only on Earth but on Mars too.
– Uwe
2 days ago
There is night and day not only on Earth but on Mars too.
– Uwe
2 days ago
The question is how much power does that take?
– marshal craft
yesterday
The question is how much power does that take?
– marshal craft
yesterday
1
1
Who pays the bill for using so much precious DSN time for transmission of images with very few changes?
– Uwe
13 hours ago
Who pays the bill for using so much precious DSN time for transmission of images with very few changes?
– Uwe
13 hours ago
@Uwe You're right, it doesn't make sense when there are no changes. The MSL image archive is a good alternative. When there are changes, a video could be made.
– Conelisinspace
12 hours ago
@Uwe You're right, it doesn't make sense when there are no changes. The MSL image archive is a good alternative. When there are changes, a video could be made.
– Conelisinspace
12 hours ago
|
show 1 more comment
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
up vote
29
down vote
accepted
Why not? Because we can't.
We don't have full-time communication with Curiosity: Curiosity sends data to the Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey. These are overhead twice a day at 12-hour intervals. MRO and MO are in sun-synchronous orbits, so the planet rotates underneath the orbiter and they cover the entire planet in 1 day.
Both are in orbits slightly under 2 hours long, so they're only above the horizon for a short time.
During those communication passes, a limited amount of data can be uploaded. Curiosity was designed to upload 75 Mbit/day via Odyssey and 250 Mbit/day via MRO. The actual amount varies per day (depending on how high the orbiter is above the horizon), on some passes more data can be sent (up to 500 Mbit/day).
1 image/10 seconds is 6 MB/minute is 360 MB/hour. So you'd saturate the uplink and there'd be no room for science data.
Sending pictures every 10-20 seconds would interrupt driving (you don't want to take images while driving because they'd all be blurry) and hinder science operations. It would also eat into the rover's limited power budget.
The rover drives for a maximum of 3 hours/day. The rest of the time it's stationary so you'd just be sending duplicate images (apart from the occasional mast movement).
The MSL image archive contains all images taken by the rover. Each camera takes images every day. The 2 navigation cameras take 4-150 images per day each, for example. For Sol 2250, about 280 images were taken by the 8 cameras.
Images are usually uploaded within a day, the image archive contains images taken yesterday. Sometimes images are stored on the rover because other data are given priority.
Data for most of this from Emily Lakdawalla's book 'The design and engineering of Curiosity'.
answered 2 days ago
Hobbes
84.5k2238382
2
@Conelisinspace: Why should be 12 images a day been send if 9 or 10 would be duplicates?
– Uwe
2 days ago
3
@Conelisinspace - they are nearly polar orbits.
– amI
2 days ago
3
It's not just what the rover can send, it's what Earth can receive. It takes rather more than your average radio antenna to pick up signals from space probes. NASA uses this: marsmobile.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/mission/communicationwithearth The DSN is not dedicated to one mission: it has to be timeshared between all of the probes out there.
– jamesqf
2 days ago
2
Is Mb megabits?
– Ruslan
2 days ago
11
Conventionally small-b means bits, and large-B means bytes, particularly when talking about telecommunications.
– David Given
2 days ago
|
show 11 more comments
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
up vote
29
down vote
accepted
Why not? Because we can't.
We don't have full-time communication with Curiosity: Curiosity sends data to the Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey. These are overhead twice a day at 12-hour intervals. MRO and MO are in sun-synchronous orbits, so the planet rotates underneath the orbiter and they cover the entire planet in 1 day.
Both are in orbits slightly under 2 hours long, so they're only above the horizon for a short time.
During those communication passes, a limited amount of data can be uploaded. Curiosity was designed to upload 75 Mbit/day via Odyssey and 250 Mbit/day via MRO. The actual amount varies per day (depending on how high the orbiter is above the horizon), on some passes more data can be sent (up to 500 Mbit/day).
1 image/10 seconds is 6 MB/minute is 360 MB/hour. So you'd saturate the uplink and there'd be no room for science data.
Sending pictures every 10-20 seconds would interrupt driving (you don't want to take images while driving because they'd all be blurry) and hinder science operations. It would also eat into the rover's limited power budget.
The rover drives for a maximum of 3 hours/day. The rest of the time it's stationary so you'd just be sending duplicate images (apart from the occasional mast movement).
The MSL image archive contains all images taken by the rover. Each camera takes images every day. The 2 navigation cameras take 4-150 images per day each, for example. For Sol 2250, about 280 images were taken by the 8 cameras.
Images are usually uploaded within a day, the image archive contains images taken yesterday. Sometimes images are stored on the rover because other data are given priority.
Data for most of this from Emily Lakdawalla's book 'The design and engineering of Curiosity'.
answered 2 days ago
Hobbes
84.5k2238382
2
@Conelisinspace: Why should be 12 images a day been send if 9 or 10 would be duplicates?
– Uwe
2 days ago
3
@Conelisinspace - they are nearly polar orbits.
– amI
2 days ago
3
It's not just what the rover can send, it's what Earth can receive. It takes rather more than your average radio antenna to pick up signals from space probes. NASA uses this: marsmobile.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/mission/communicationwithearth The DSN is not dedicated to one mission: it has to be timeshared between all of the probes out there.
– jamesqf
2 days ago
2
Is Mb megabits?
– Ruslan
2 days ago
11
Conventionally small-b means bits, and large-B means bytes, particularly when talking about telecommunications.
– David Given
2 days ago
|
show 11 more comments
up vote
29
down vote
accepted
Why not? Because we can't.
We don't have full-time communication with Curiosity: Curiosity sends data to the Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey. These are overhead twice a day at 12-hour intervals. MRO and MO are in sun-synchronous orbits, so the planet rotates underneath the orbiter and they cover the entire planet in 1 day.
Both are in orbits slightly under 2 hours long, so they're only above the horizon for a short time.
During those communication passes, a limited amount of data can be uploaded. Curiosity was designed to upload 75 Mbit/day via Odyssey and 250 Mbit/day via MRO. The actual amount varies per day (depending on how high the orbiter is above the horizon), on some passes more data can be sent (up to 500 Mbit/day).
1 image/10 seconds is 6 MB/minute is 360 MB/hour. So you'd saturate the uplink and there'd be no room for science data.
Sending pictures every 10-20 seconds would interrupt driving (you don't want to take images while driving because they'd all be blurry) and hinder science operations. It would also eat into the rover's limited power budget.
The rover drives for a maximum of 3 hours/day. The rest of the time it's stationary so you'd just be sending duplicate images (apart from the occasional mast movement).
The MSL image archive contains all images taken by the rover. Each camera takes images every day. The 2 navigation cameras take 4-150 images per day each, for example. For Sol 2250, about 280 images were taken by the 8 cameras.
Images are usually uploaded within a day, the image archive contains images taken yesterday. Sometimes images are stored on the rover because other data are given priority.
Data for most of this from Emily Lakdawalla's book 'The design and engineering of Curiosity'.
answered 2 days ago
Hobbes
84.5k2238382
2
@Conelisinspace: Why should be 12 images a day been send if 9 or 10 would be duplicates?
– Uwe
2 days ago
3
@Conelisinspace - they are nearly polar orbits.
– amI
2 days ago
3
It's not just what the rover can send, it's what Earth can receive. It takes rather more than your average radio antenna to pick up signals from space probes. NASA uses this: marsmobile.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/mission/communicationwithearth The DSN is not dedicated to one mission: it has to be timeshared between all of the probes out there.
– jamesqf
2 days ago
2
Is Mb megabits?
– Ruslan
2 days ago
11
Conventionally small-b means bits, and large-B means bytes, particularly when talking about telecommunications.
– David Given
2 days ago
|
show 11 more comments
up vote
29
down vote
accepted
up vote
29
down vote
accepted
Why not? Because we can't.
We don't have full-time communication with Curiosity: Curiosity sends data to the Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey. These are overhead twice a day at 12-hour intervals. MRO and MO are in sun-synchronous orbits, so the planet rotates underneath the orbiter and they cover the entire planet in 1 day.
Both are in orbits slightly under 2 hours long, so they're only above the horizon for a short time.
During those communication passes, a limited amount of data can be uploaded. Curiosity was designed to upload 75 Mbit/day via Odyssey and 250 Mbit/day via MRO. The actual amount varies per day (depending on how high the orbiter is above the horizon), on some passes more data can be sent (up to 500 Mbit/day).
1 image/10 seconds is 6 MB/minute is 360 MB/hour. So you'd saturate the uplink and there'd be no room for science data.
Sending pictures every 10-20 seconds would interrupt driving (you don't want to take images while driving because they'd all be blurry) and hinder science operations. It would also eat into the rover's limited power budget.
The rover drives for a maximum of 3 hours/day. The rest of the time it's stationary so you'd just be sending duplicate images (apart from the occasional mast movement).
The MSL image archive contains all images taken by the rover. Each camera takes images every day. The 2 navigation cameras take 4-150 images per day each, for example. For Sol 2250, about 280 images were taken by the 8 cameras.
Images are usually uploaded within a day, the image archive contains images taken yesterday. Sometimes images are stored on the rover because other data are given priority.
Data for most of this from Emily Lakdawalla's book 'The design and engineering of Curiosity'.
answered 2 days ago
Hobbes
84.5k2238382
Why not? Because we can't.
We don't have full-time communication with Curiosity: Curiosity sends data to the Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey. These are overhead twice a day at 12-hour intervals. MRO and MO are in sun-synchronous orbits, so the planet rotates underneath the orbiter and they cover the entire planet in 1 day.
Both are in orbits slightly under 2 hours long, so they're only above the horizon for a short time.
During those communication passes, a limited amount of data can be uploaded. Curiosity was designed to upload 75 Mbit/day via Odyssey and 250 Mbit/day via MRO. The actual amount varies per day (depending on how high the orbiter is above the horizon), on some passes more data can be sent (up to 500 Mbit/day).
1 image/10 seconds is 6 MB/minute is 360 MB/hour. So you'd saturate the uplink and there'd be no room for science data.
Sending pictures every 10-20 seconds would interrupt driving (you don't want to take images while driving because they'd all be blurry) and hinder science operations. It would also eat into the rover's limited power budget.
The rover drives for a maximum of 3 hours/day. The rest of the time it's stationary so you'd just be sending duplicate images (apart from the occasional mast movement).
The MSL image archive contains all images taken by the rover. Each camera takes images every day. The 2 navigation cameras take 4-150 images per day each, for example. For Sol 2250, about 280 images were taken by the 8 cameras.
Images are usually uploaded within a day, the image archive contains images taken yesterday. Sometimes images are stored on the rover because other data are given priority.
Data for most of this from Emily Lakdawalla's book 'The design and engineering of Curiosity'.
answered 2 days ago
Hobbes
84.5k2238382
edited 16 hours ago
answered 2 days ago
Hobbes
84.5k2238382
answered 2 days ago
Hobbes
84.5k2238382
answered 2 days ago
Hobbes
84.5k2238382
84.5k2238382
2
@Conelisinspace: Why should be 12 images a day been send if 9 or 10 would be duplicates?
– Uwe
2 days ago
3
@Conelisinspace - they are nearly polar orbits.
– amI
2 days ago
3
It's not just what the rover can send, it's what Earth can receive. It takes rather more than your average radio antenna to pick up signals from space probes. NASA uses this: marsmobile.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/mission/communicationwithearth The DSN is not dedicated to one mission: it has to be timeshared between all of the probes out there.
– jamesqf
2 days ago
2
Is Mb megabits?
– Ruslan
2 days ago
11
Conventionally small-b means bits, and large-B means bytes, particularly when talking about telecommunications.
– David Given
2 days ago
|
show 11 more comments
2
@Conelisinspace: Why should be 12 images a day been send if 9 or 10 would be duplicates?
– Uwe
2 days ago
3
@Conelisinspace - they are nearly polar orbits.
– amI
2 days ago
3
It's not just what the rover can send, it's what Earth can receive. It takes rather more than your average radio antenna to pick up signals from space probes. NASA uses this: marsmobile.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/mission/communicationwithearth The DSN is not dedicated to one mission: it has to be timeshared between all of the probes out there.
– jamesqf
2 days ago
2
Is Mb megabits?
– Ruslan
2 days ago
11
Conventionally small-b means bits, and large-B means bytes, particularly when talking about telecommunications.
– David Given
2 days ago
2
2
@Conelisinspace: Why should be 12 images a day been send if 9 or 10 would be duplicates?
– Uwe
2 days ago
@Conelisinspace: Why should be 12 images a day been send if 9 or 10 would be duplicates?
– Uwe
2 days ago
3
3
@Conelisinspace - they are nearly polar orbits.
– amI
2 days ago
@Conelisinspace - they are nearly polar orbits.
– amI
2 days ago
3
3
It's not just what the rover can send, it's what Earth can receive. It takes rather more than your average radio antenna to pick up signals from space probes. NASA uses this: marsmobile.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/mission/communicationwithearth The DSN is not dedicated to one mission: it has to be timeshared between all of the probes out there.
– jamesqf
2 days ago
It's not just what the rover can send, it's what Earth can receive. It takes rather more than your average radio antenna to pick up signals from space probes. NASA uses this: marsmobile.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/mission/communicationwithearth The DSN is not dedicated to one mission: it has to be timeshared between all of the probes out there.
– jamesqf
2 days ago
2
2
Is Mb megabits?
– Ruslan
2 days ago
Is Mb megabits?
– Ruslan
2 days ago
11
11
Conventionally small-b means bits, and large-B means bytes, particularly when talking about telecommunications.
– David Given
2 days ago
Conventionally small-b means bits, and large-B means bytes, particularly when talking about telecommunications.
– David Given
2 days ago
|
show 11 more comments
Thanks for contributing an answer to Space Exploration Stack Exchange!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
Use MathJax to format equations. MathJax reference.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Some of your past answers have not been well-received, and you're in danger of being blocked from answering.
Please pay close attention to the following guidance:
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fspace.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f32674%2fwhy-not-a-live-visual-connection-with-curiosity-on-mars-all-the-time%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
3
This is related to, but different than Could “live” video be transmitted from Mars?
– uhoh
2 days ago
2
There is night and day not only on Earth but on Mars too.
– Uwe
2 days ago
The question is how much power does that take?
– marshal craft
yesterday
1
Who pays the bill for using so much precious DSN time for transmission of images with very few changes?
– Uwe
13 hours ago
@Uwe You're right, it doesn't make sense when there are no changes. The MSL image archive is a good alternative. When there are changes, a video could be made.
– Conelisinspace
12 hours ago