Do. 1  Do spend some time understanding the point of what you are about to write. 2  Do make lists. 3  Do use an appropriate tone. 4  Do write several drafts of each paragraph. 5  Do compare your first draft copy with other material from previous issues of the journal or website.
Mars is so far away in fact that it takes radio signals quite a long time to get from the spacecraft back to Earth. During Curiosity EDL, this delay will be 13 minutes, 48 seconds, about mid-way between the minimum delay of around 4 minutes and the maximum of around 24 minutes.
Practically, the two planets will be 57.6 million km away on July 27, 2018. We know the speed of EM waves through vacuum is 300,000 km/s. So, on 27 July 2018, Time taken for any signal to travel from Earth to Mars (or vice versa)= distance/speed= 192 seconds, i.e. 3 min 12 sec.