NASA is calling for a new, privately-owned communications network to be set up on Mars. The agency released a Request for Information (RFI), formal paperwork seeking public development of a new system.
The new network would use a commercially-managed network of satellites orbiting Mars to communicate with rovers on the surface.
"We are looking to broaden participation in the exploration of Mars to include new models for government and commercial partnerships. Depending on the outcome, the new model could be a vital component in future science missions and the path for humans to Mars," John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said.
NASA stated in the RFI they will purchase service time on a private data network established around the Red Planet. Such a system is needed to provide communications through the 2020's, when a gap in data capabilities may occur.
Space agency officials hope that the RFI will spur private companies to develop new technologies for use in the system. Lasers could be used for the network, as NASA tested during the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) mission, in October 2013. That experiment was able to transfer data from the Moon to the Earth at a record-breaking 622 megabits-per-second.
Communications between rovers on the Martian surface and the Earth are rarely carried out directly. The size, weight and costs of the receivers and transmitters needed for such actions are prohibitive for mobile spacecraft.
Data is usually sent to orbiters high above the surface of Mars. These larger vehicles relay the information to mission controllers back on Earth, via high-gain antennae.
NASA currently maintains a pair of orbiters at the Red Planet capable of carrying out this high-speed communication with our home planet. These are Odyssey, launched in 2001 and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which lifted off four years later. The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft is due to arrive at Mars on 21 September. The ExoMars/Trace Gas Orbiter, operated by the European Space Agency (ESA), will reach the Red Planet in 2016. Each of those missions will connect with the current data network over Mars.
"This Mars relay strategy has been extremely successful in providing the science and engineering data returned from the Martian surface over the past decade," Lisa May, lead program executive for the Mars Exploration Program, stated in a press release from Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
After MAVEN arrives, NASA has no more plans to send orbiting spacecraft to Mars. Older spacecraft could go offline in the 2020's, creating challenges in data transmission for the space agency. A private network could therefore act as an "insurance policy" for NASA rovers on the face of Mars.
