i like the drama, but the science is starting to disappoint me. for starters, there is no time delay when they talk to mission control, even though last night they were "3 million kilometers from earth" (thats a 20 second round trip delay for a radio signal). i should have noticed this from the first episode, when m.c. was telling maddux to take off from mars immediately and he was answering back in real time that he couldn't. the time delay due to distance is not just an inconvenience for dramatists, its a law of nature, and it is important for sf fans who are quick to pick up on it. besides, it could be used for excellent dramatic effect, to underscore their increasing isolation from home. a good script would take advantage of this, use it, not just sweep it under the rug because its too much trouble to write around it. can you imagine how effective it would be, from a dramatic pov, if the instructions and advice from hq always arrived after the action was over, too late to do them any good? it would really drive home the point that they are a long way from home and totally on their own.