Here is a bit more information on how the tech works currently:

Currently, robotic rovers on the surface of Mars communicate with Earth by first relaying messages to a satellite orbiting the Red Planet; but the new antenna would cut out the middle-man and allow rovers to communicate directly with scientists back home. The new antenna design would also dramatically increase the available communication time between Red Planet rovers and Earth, according to a statement from the University of California at Los Angeles.

The new design could be a major boost for future missions, such as NASA’s Mars 2020 rover, scheduled to begin its journey to Mars in 2020.

This new design sounds like a huge improvement and is very exciting.

Below is also a related video on a Mars rover with some incredible scenery.

thanks to space.com for the great info

thanks to UCLA for the pic