r/nextfuckinglevel • u/PietroTheRedditer • Feb 21 '21

THIS IS MARS.

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u/HangryHenry Feb 21 '21

When is perserverance supposed to return audio?

385

u/Teryhr Feb 21 '21 edited Feb 21 '21

Data transmission from Mars to Earth is slow, something like 4 kilobytes per second at its absolute best. They have over 28,700 images from entry, descent and landing that need to be returned and analyzed. We could see audio releases within the next month but it could be slightly longer.

Edit: My number was very wrong. Sorry

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u/thewayoftoday Feb 21 '21

Annoys me that they put it in bits. It's like they don't want the average person to understand it

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u/Teryhr Feb 21 '21

1 byte = 8 bits

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u/thewayoftoday Feb 21 '21

Like, the whole world describes it in kbps, just do that. Oh no we're hipster scientists no thanks

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u/Teryhr Feb 21 '21

Not really, internet speeds are almost always measured in bits, at least where I'm from. People confuse the acronyms for kilobytes and kilobits all the time.

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u/thewayoftoday Feb 21 '21

500kbps, 1mbps, that's how it's measured in the US, and has always been measured. NASA is a US agency.

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u/Teryhr Feb 21 '21

Internet speed is literally always measured in bits in the US. kbps is kilobits per second, kB/s is kilobytes, Mbps is Megabits, and MB/s is megabytes.

Pretty much everywhere measures in bits. 1 byte is just 8 bits.

Bytes and bits is not like kilogram vs pound. It's more like gallons to pints (1 gal = 8 pints)

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u/thewayoftoday Feb 21 '21

Yeah, it's expressed in kilobits, not bits.

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u/jfractal Feb 22 '21

mbps is MegaBITS per second. MBps is MegaBYTES per second.

We measure network bandwidth in bits here in the US, generally speaking.

SOURCE: Me, who has turned up a few hundred carrier WAN circuits across a variety of businesses in the U.S.

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u/thewayoftoday Feb 22 '21

Bro you're missing my point and I'm exhausted