I think it's pretty clear that he means a relay in an orbit around
the sun that would allow continious communications between Earth and Mars..

Which probably isn't worth the money, especially for aging flaky rovers.
If something's suspect of not surviving a month of not being closely
monitored it's probably hardly worth saving anymore.

* * * * Jochem


Well curosity is brand new as rovers go, but a relay sat could not
only relay from mars but other planets.

if opportunity goes dead no one will know what went wrong Having at
least a engineering data link could be useful when vehicles are lost.
Could be used for searching for comets and meteors, might be able to
image lost vehicles like snoopy in heliospheric orbit somewhere, and
might even be useful as a relay for moon operations away from earth