On Mar 20, 3:00*pm, "Greg \(Strider\) Moore"
wrote:
:: how about a relay sat in heliospheric orbit so at least engineering

:: communications can continue?
:: other than cost are there any other issues preventing this?

: Fred J. McCall
: there are no overriding technical reasons why it couldn't be done.
: You'd need a new rocket,

Which would double the price of the mission.
I had heard bob was for less expensive missions?

Well you wouldn't fly one per mission. *You'd use it for multiple missions.

My question is would a satellite at an Earth-Sun Trojan point have enough
angle to see Mars during conjunction or would you still have the same
issues?



--
Greg D. Moore * * * * * * * * *http://greenmountainsoftware.wordpress.com/
CEO QuiCR: Quick, Crowdsourced Responses.http://www.quicr.net

it might be interesting to send a unmanned mission to retrieve some
of the stuff at the trogan points.

theres other stuff in heliospheric, snoopy some saturn 2nd stages and
other leftovers of the space age....

the communication craft could be placed in a permanent orbit to be
used as a relay satellite for communications.

lets not forget the vehicles that were lost, and no clear reason due
to lack of communications....

this sort of vehicle could not only be used as a communications relay
but also have uses looking for comets and meteors that could be a
hazard some day......

give it large solar panels for a long life expectancy, a backup RTG
that would also keep it somewhat warm, while supplying some power, and
a ion engine for station keeping and long term testing.

it would be awesome if it could during its mission take pictures of
other things in heliospheric orbit like snoopy.