How do rovers on another planet receive instructions from Earth?
In: Planetary Science
Radio waves.
The commands are sent from mission control on Earth to a Deep Space Network (DSN) ground station. The DSN consists of large antennas located in California (USA), Madrid (Spain), and Canberra (Australia) to ensure continuous communication with spacecraft.
The signals are transmitted from the DSN to a relay orbiter (such as the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter or MAVEN) orbiting the target planet. These orbiters then relay the commands to the rover on the planet’s surface.
The delay can be 3 minutes to 22 minutes one way depending on the distance/orbit of the planets (using Mars here a a real-world example).
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