Cycler Orbits and Solar System Pony Express

What is it about?

Mars orbiters have a data problem. Their instruments can and do collect significantly more data than can be sent to earth over radio or laser links. The problem of retrieving data from Mars could be treated like a logistics problem, with a network of satellites visiting Mars and then Earth to carry huge batches of data between the planets. It turns out that such a network is not only technologically plausible in the near future, but it produces a huge data throughput, possibly without requiring additional launches, and without disrupting the usual methods of getting data from Mars, making this an "add on" technology. The tradeoffs include latency (it may take a year or more to get data from Mars) and cost.

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