As impressive as the Mars Curiosity’s findings have been, the rover just doesn’t have the brains to cut it further out in the solar system. This is because, at the start of each Martian day, Nasa has to deal with a significant communication delay when it sends its agenda to the Mars rover. Even moving at light speed, instructions from Earth take about 20 minutes to reach the surface of Mars. This 40-minute roundtrip makes real-time control of the rover impossible. At the start of each Martian day, Nasa has to deal with a significant communication delay when it sends its agenda to the Mars rover. Even moving at light speed, instructions from Earth take about 20 minutes to reach the surface of Mars. This 40-minute roundtrip makes real-time control of the rover impossible
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The TextureCam can both take and analyse images of an alien environment
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Current rovers require scientists on Earth to do the analysis of rocks
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It can takes around 20 minutes for a message from Earth to reach Mars
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TextureCam hopes to remove this bottleneck for future rovers
‘While this suffices for our rovers on @placeholder, it works less and less well the further you get from the Earth.