It is here that mission control will receive the telemetry from Curiosity that has been bounced to Earth by the overflying satellite known as Odyssey.

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The two-new-runway option would see a new northern full-length runway 2, 900 metres from the existing one, on which planes would fly only to and from the west to avoid overflying the town of Horley.

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Satellites have long been used to track ice extent (area), but calculating the thickness of the marine floes requires the overflying spacecraft to gauge the difference between the top of the ice surface and the top of the water - a relatively simple calculation then gives the overall volume.

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