Because of the time needed for a radiosignal from Earth to reach the rover -- about 14 minutes at Mars' current position -- "We don't command the rover with a joystick or a steering wheel in real time, " Tompkins said.
Each of the 20 transceivers or "nodes" can transmit and receive to the other 19, meaning there can be up to 380 measurements (20 times 19) of radiosignal strength within a short period of time (the transceivers transmit one after the other).