toldorknown: Thanks to Siri, I can now be more precise in my criticism of a stupid movie’s depiction of an interplanetary radio communication as being like a phone call. It gets worse. When you send a craft to Mars, you send it to where Mars is going to be in the time it takes to get there. Currently, the Mars Science Laboratory is on its way, scheduled to arrive in August of next year. Earth moves faster in its orbit than Mars, so we’ll be farther away from Mars by then than we are now. How far? Twenty minutes, at the speed of light. So the bad-movie people are more likely to have a twenty minute delay than the 6.4 minute delay that is currently in effect.
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toldorknown:

Thanks to Siri, I can now be more precise in my criticism of a stupid movie’s depiction of an interplanetary radio communication as being like a phone call.

It gets worse.

When you send a craft to Mars, you send it to where Mars is going to be in the time it takes to get there. Currently, the Mars Science Laboratory is on its way, scheduled to arrive in August of next year. Earth moves faster in its orbit than Mars, so we’ll be farther away from Mars by then than we are now.

How far?

Twenty minutes, at the speed of light.

So the bad-movie people are more likely to have a twenty minute delay than the 6.4 minute delay that is currently in effect.

Source: toldorknown

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  1. smartasshat reblogged this from toldorknown and added:
    It gets worse. When you send a craft to Mars, you send it to where Mars is going...the...
  2. dielaughing said: Quantum entanglement is both possible and a reality. This would allow exactly what you see in the movies and it’s probably the first thing we will do with the new technology once we’ve perfected it.
  3. toldorknown posted this