Electra (radio)

The ultimate goal of Electra is to achieve a higher level of system integration, thus allowing significant mass, power, and size reductions, at lower cost, for a broad class of spacecraft.

[1] Using Mars orbiters as radio relays to increase data return from rovers and other landers reduces the mass and power the surface spacecraft need for communications.

[5] A special feature is that it can actively adjust the data rate during a communication session – slower when the orbiter is near the horizon from the surface robot's perspective, faster when it is overhead.

The arriving spacecraft can receive these signals and determine its distance and speed in relation to Mars.

This coverage would be important to landed crafts on Mars that might not have sufficient radio power to communicate directly with Earth by themselves.