https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/opportunity-enters-perseverance-valley/ Fri, 21 Jul 2017 19:42:06 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/opportunity-enters-perseverance-valley/#comment-1001620 Fri, 21 Jul 2017 19:42:06 +0000 http://behindtheblack.com/?p=46724#comment-1001620 Nope. It costs a lot of money to launch a satellite. Since there is, as far as I know, no scientific value for one to sit at a LaGrange point, no one has seen fit to invest the money in sending one there. I would have suggested the possibility of using a polar orbiting solar satellite to bounce communications over/under the sun, but as I recall, Ulysses was the only one in polar orbit and is no longer functioning. As it stands, it’s more cost effective just to put up with the two weeks of down time than it would be to launch a satellite for the sole purpose of relaying communications during the brief times of solar conjunction with other planets.

]]> https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/opportunity-enters-perseverance-valley/#comment-1001607 Fri, 21 Jul 2017 18:02:59 +0000 http://behindtheblack.com/?p=46724#comment-1001607 We don’t have a relay satellite at L4 or L5?

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