M2K4

[Benji]

With two rovers on the surface of Mars, NASA has been accomplishing some amazing things extraterrestrially. I just learned of an amazing feat of interplanetary (and interagency) networking and had to share it.

International Interplanetary Networking Succeeds

A pioneering demonstration of communications between NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit and the European Space Agency (ESA) Mars Express orbiter succeeded.

On February 6, while Mars Express was flying over the area Spirit was examining, the orbiter transferred commands from Earth to the rover and relayed data from the robotic explorer back to Earth.

"This is the first time we have had an in-orbit communication between ESA and NASA spacecraft, and also the first working international communications network around another planet," said Rudolf Schmidt, ESA's project manager for Mars Express. "Both are significant achievements, two more 'firsts' for Mars Express and the Mars Exploration Rovers."

Jennifer Trosper, Spirit mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., said, "We have an international interplanetary communications network established at Mars."

I think that's fantastic. It's amazing that two very different agencies can get very different spacecraft that are so far away to communicate in such a network. I can't even get my two computers to communicate half the time.

The full press relese can be found at http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2004/fe ... netwk.html