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It is rather difficult to communicate between Mars and
Earth, because the distance between the planets causes is so
far that it takes messages 11 minutes to travel from one
planet to the other. Imagine talking on the phone like this.
If you say something to to other people, they have to wait
11 minutes before they can hear you and respond. Then, you
have to wait 11 minutes to hear their response. This means
that if you asked a simple question like, "Hi, how are you
doing?", you wouldn't get an answer for 22 minutes!
In order to compensate for this, the colonists only call
when they have something to do while they wait for the
response. Some colonists prefer doing laundry while they
talk on the phone, while others tend to vegetable gardens.
However, simple conversations are not the only type of
communication between the planets. The planets are
constantly sending
computer information
back and forth. This information includes important news,
status reports, information from the Internet, and
library books. For
these, the two worlds just constantly send each other
information, and they don't have to worry about the delay.
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