On 10/5/15 07:46, Chuck McCown wrote:
Old lander having a data bus that could interconnect with new stuff. Perhaps. Maybe there is some kind of old NASA standard data bus like RS-232. Might could have happened.
Pathfinder did have an RS-422 port on it for access while it was on Earth.
Antenna on old lander looked too small to do the trick. I am thinking if that was a true replica, it was probably talking to an orbiting relay spacecraft back when it was still working.
Pathfinder used the NASA Deep Space Network for communication, but it also only communicated at 1-2kbps. I think the only thing in orbit at Pathfinder's time was Mars Global Surveyor. Pathfinder had two antennas: a low gain did didn't need to be pointed directly at Earth and the directional high gain antenna.
~Seth
