QUESTION:
As the Mars probe entered Mars atmosphere, you could have dropped
transmitters over a length of time before the probe landed that would
increase the area that the rover could travel and still keep in contact with
the lander, thus giving you an increased area to explore.

ANSWER from Guy Beutelschies on July 19, 1997:
Good idea but we are taking a different approach.  Each orbiter that is
being sent to Mars will have a receiver to talk to any rovers on the
surface.  That way, the rovers do not have to depend on landers to transmit
their data back to Earth.

The angle we entered that atmosphere was ~15 degrees.  The probe covered
several hundred kilometers between reaching the atmosphere and touching down
on the surface.