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VIRTUALISATION Mars webcam goes dark
VIRTUALISATION Mars webcam goes dark | Mars webcam goes dark |
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| by Stephen Withers | |
| Tuesday, 09 December 2008 | |
  
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And even when Mars Express comes out of hibernation, the distance between the two planets is particularly large (370 million kilometres) which affects the speed at which data can be transmitted. The 45,700bps connection speed is comparable with a dial-up Internet link - in other words: slow. On top of that, instruments including the High Resolution Stereo Camera will be pumping out data at a remarkable rate - more than 3 gigabits on some days. Do the arithmetic and you'll see there isn't much spare capacity on the link. Accordingly, low priority activities including the Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC, aka the Mars webcam) will be suspended for a longer period. The VMC is expected to resume operation in the early northern spring of 2009. |
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