Engineers find where a Mars image was delayed on its way to a scientist

Engineers trace a Mars dust-storm image that was delayed between the antenna and the science team, so the scientist receives it before her planning deadline.

A dust storm is spreading on Mars, and a scientist needs a new image before her planning deadline. In a ground test, the antenna receives the data on time, but the image does not reach the science team, and no one can say where it stopped. The film follows the engineers who trace each step of the delivery to find the delay.

A repeat test that took six person-days of troubleshooting takes a day and a half with the trace. The film then shows the same kind of tracing used at a Moon base control center in Houston, where NASA and its partners need to know which link lost data.

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