Quote:
Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus
You left out the part where it's anywhere between 40-250 million miles away.
Instead of an underscore your middle name should be "conspiracy" or in this case "backtrack"
|
Except it really isn't all that impressive and it isn't from 40-250 million miles away. Communications take between five and twenty minutes to reach Mars from earth, depending on our orbits, so they are not flying the drone interactively. The drone will fly pre-programmed flight paths provided by the rover and return back to the rover as its home base. You can do the exact same thing here on earth with your DJI Mavic. It's also why the drone was temporarily lost when line of sight was lost. The control package is on the rover and they must be close enough to communicate directly.