was just reading about the orbital mechanics of sending rover craft curiosity to mars each celestial body involved earth sun moon craft itself has 3 variables of position/3 variables of velocity that is 24 total can you imagine the eqs. fed into the computer

Question

was just reading about the orbital mechanics of sending rover craft  curiosity to mars   each celestial body involved  earth  sun  moon  craft itself   has 3 variables of position/3 variables of velocity     that is 24 total   can you imagine the eqs. fed into the computer

anonymous · Answer

there's an x, y, and z coordinate
as well as for speed

you need to calculate the position relative to a rotating and revolving earth
calculate the trajectory it must take to reach a celestial body reolving around the sun
uh the information time lag between large distances because a signal can only travel as fast as light and light has a constant speed
i think mars was like 14 seconds

shane_b · Answer

The delay for a signal between Earth and Mars is more like 3 minutes (minimum) assuming the signal is traveling at light speed.

shane_b · Answer

$$\Large I \space \color{red}\heartsuit \space Curiosity !$$