Do. 1  Do spend some time understanding the point of what you are about to write. 2  Do make lists. 3  Do use an appropriate tone. 4  Do write several drafts of each paragraph. 5  Do compare your first draft copy with other material from previous issues of the journal or website.
Mars is so far away in fact that it takes radio signals quite a long time to get from the spacecraft back to Earth. During Curiosity EDL, this delay will be 13 minutes, 48 seconds, about mid-way between the minimum delay of around 4 minutes and the maximum of around 24 minutes.
Confidence votes 87. Mars is roughly 1.5 Astronomical Units (AU) from the Sun (1 AU is the distance from the Sun to the Earth). In ball park estimates, it takes 8 minutes for light to travel 1 AU. So when Mars is at the closest to Earth at 0.5 AU, Mars is 4 light minutes from Earth. The farthest distance Mars is from Earth is 2.5 AU, when Mars is on the other side of the Sun from Earth (1 AU from Earth to the Sun + 1.5 AU from the Sun to Mars). At that distance Mars is 20 light minutes from earth.