• brianorca@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    We use very large radio dishes to communicate with craft at Mars, so that the spacecraft can use smaller dishes and less power. In order to add a relay at L4/L5, that relay would also need very large dishes and high power usage to reach the craft at Mars. Probably larger than anything we have in earth orbit today.

    • threelonmusketeers
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      1 year ago

      Could we use lasers instead of radio, like the Starlink laser inter-links or the NASA ILLUMA-T/LCRD demonstration?

      • brianorca@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Maybe in the future, but the existing Mars orbiters need to hear a strong radio signal. And laser communication has not yet been tested outside of Earth orbit. It will need to be significantly scaled up to handle the 2-3AU distance.