A study on different modulation and error-correction techniques for DeepSpace Communication from Mars Relay Orbiter Mars Relay Orbiter Network (MRON) is a network ofsatellites deployed to overcome the communication hurdles between Mars Exploration Rover(MER) on Mars surface and earth. Due to the need for extra complexity on rovers and unpredictableenvironmental conditions of Mars, it is more efficient to use an intermediate relay(MRO) in Mars orbit. Most data traveling back toEarth must first be sent to the Mars orbiters overhead,which then transmit the data tens ofmillions of miles through interplanetary space toradio antennas on Earth, including theantennas of NASA’s venerable Deep Space Network (DSN).There are five spacecraft currentlyin orbit about the Red Planet that make up the MarsRelay Network to transmit commands fromEarth to surface missions and receive science data back from them. 1.NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), 2.Mars Atmospheric and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN), 3.Mars Odyssey 4.the European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) Mars Express and 5.Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) Our project mainly focuses on the one-way communicationprocess from the relay orbiter toearth by modeling the inter-planetary transmissionchannel, and comparing different errorcorrection code, and modulation techniques for thisparticular situation.Here, the deep space communication environment possessesunique challenges comparing toconventional ground communication:
- Large Distance, hence Inverse r-square law andextreme power limitation
-
- Constantly changing distance between Mars and Earth
-
- Latency (Round-trip-light-time, RTLT, between 4-24minutes)
-
- Coronal turbulence, interference and high Bit ErrorRate (BER)
- Having virtually an infinite bandwidth, data ratesfor deep space are mostly limited by power andnoise.