Communications
•There are a number of solutions for Near Earth communications including Laser and Radio wave communications. •Recent innovations have made laser communications reliable. LADEE (a probe that was orbiting the moon until 4/18/14) set a record speed of 622mbs from New Mexico to the lunar orbiting craft. Error-free transmission was reliable at 20mbs, faster than most residential homes receive in the U.S.
http://mwrf.com/site-files/mwrf.com/files/imagecache/large_img/uploads/2013/12/tdrssatellitepromo.png
•To the left is the ‘TDRS-L’  Comm satellite.
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•It allows long range communications with space probes as well as Earth-Orbiting craft. Re-entry blackouts like in Apollo are a thing of the past!
Light/Radio time Roundtrips:
Curiosity - 13m:48s  (Explain 7 minutes of terror landing and where I was)
Voyager 2 – Almost 32 hours