data during the landing, which demonstrated the new relay system and technology for future use in missions to other Solar System bodies. This provided an alternative to the orbiters for relaying information and achieved a technology development threshold.

After the MarCO satellites went silent in January 2019, there was a chance that communications with the satellites could be reestablished in the second half of 2019 as the satellites moved into more favorable location in space. NASA launched a campaign to establish communication with