Interplanetary communications
Interplanetary communications between the Earth and Mars will be required for a Martian settlement.
As of 2019, The Deep Space Network (DSN) provides the infrastructure for interplanetary communication between the Earth and Mars. The network is composed of Antennas on Earth, orbiters in Mars orbit and landers and rovers on the surface (plus all the other vehicles in space under the supervision of NASA). For example, the Curiosity Rover can communicate with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter at a rate of up to 2 million bits per second (Mbps), or directly to the DSN at a rate of 500 to 32 000 bps depending on conditions.
The Mars reconnaissance Orbiter can communicate with the DSN at a rate of 6 Mbps using 32 GHz on the Ka band. The amplifier required for the Ka band has 35 W of power. However, this capacity is not used and the spacecraft rather uses a 100 W amplifier in the K band at 8 GHz and about 2 Mbps[1].
In the future, the communication requirements will grow tremendously and the DSN will need to be replaced.
A single typical compressed HDTV (1920 x 1080) signal may require 40 Mbps. The 2017 Viasat-2 geostationary communication satellite can handle data rates up to 300 Gbps, or practically ten thousand HDTV signals. The solar array on the Viasat 2 has a power of 18 kW.
More bandwidth Higher frequency More power Interplanetary Internet
The latency problem
Supported on Mars by Information infrastructure and Communication systems
Internet on Mars Internet on Ships Internet on Aircraft
