The 70- meter (230- foot) Deep Space Station 14 (DSS-14) is the biggest Deep Space Network antenna at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex near Barstow,California Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The DSN is being updated to interact with more spacecraft than ever previously and to accommodate developing objective requirements.
When NASA‘s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover touched down on the Red Planet, the company’s Deep Space Network (DSN) existed, making it possible for the objective to send out and get the information that assisted make the occasion possible. When OSIRIS-REx took samples of asteroid Bennu this previous year, the DSN played an important function, not simply in sending out the command series to the probe, however likewise in sending its spectacular images back to Earth.
The network has actually been the foundation of NASA’s deep area interactions because 1963, supporting 39 objectives routinely, with more than 30 NASA objectives in advancement. The group behind it is now striving to increase capability, making a variety of enhancements to the network that will assist advance future area expedition.
Managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the Space Communications and Navigation Program, based at NASA Headquarters within the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, the DSN is what makes it possible for objectives to track, send out commands to, and get clinical information from far spacecraft.
The network includes tracking antennas throughout 3 complexes equally spaced worldwide at the Goldstone complex near Barstow, California; in Madrid, Spain; and in Canberra,Australia In addition to supporting objectives, the antennas are routinely utilized to carry out radio science– studying worlds, great voids, and tracking near-Earth items.
“Capacity is a big pressure, and our antenna-enhancement program is going to help that out. This includes the building of two new antennas, increasing our number from 12 to 14,” stated JPL‘s Michael Levesque, deputy director of the DSN.
Explore NASA’s huge 70- meter (230- foot) DSS-14 antenna at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in Barstow, California, in this 360- degree video. Along with interacting with spacecraft throughout the planetary system, DSS-14 and other DSN antennas can likewise be utilized to carry out radio science. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Network Upgrades
In January 2021, the DSN invited its 13 th meal to the household. Named Deep Space Station 56 (DSS-56), this brand-new 34- meter-wide (112- foot-wide) meal in Madrid is an “all-in-one” antenna. Previously built antennas are restricted in the frequency bands they can get and transfer, frequently limiting them to interacting with particular spacecraft. DSS-56 was the very first to utilize the DSN’s complete variety of interaction frequencies as quickly as it browsed the web and can interact with all the objectives that the DSN supports.
Soon after bringing DSS-56 online, the DSN group finished 11 months of crucial upgrades to Deep Space Station 43 (DSS-43), the huge 70- meter (230- foot) antenna inCanberra DSS-43 is the only meal in the Southern Hemisphere with a transmitter effective enough, which broadcasts the best frequency, to send out commands to the far-off Voyager 2 spacecraft, which is now in interstellar area. With rebuilt transmitters and updated centers devices, DSS-43 will serve the network for years to come.
“The refresh of DSS-43 was a big achievement, and we’re on our method to look after the next 2 70- meter antennas in Goldstone andMadrid And we have actually continued to provide brand-new antennas to resolve growing need– all throughout COVID-19,” stated JPL’s Brad Arnold, supervisor of the DSN.
The enhancements belong to a job to satisfy not simply the increased need, however likewise developing objective requirements.
This artist’s idea reveals what Deep Space Station-23, a brand-new antenna meal efficient in supporting both radio wave and laser interactions, will appear like when finished at the Deep Space Network’s Goldstone, California, complex. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Missions significantly create more information than in the past. The information rate from deep area spacecraft has actually grown by more than 10 times because the very first lunar objectives in the 1960 s. As NASA looks towards sending out human beings to Mars, this requirement for greater information volumes will just increase even more.
Optical interactions is one tool that can assist satisfy this need for greater information volumes by utilizing lasers to make it possible for higher-bandwidth interaction. Over the next couple of years, NASA has actually a number of objectives prepared to show laser interactions that will improve the company’s capability to check out further into area.
New Approaches
The network is likewise concentrating on brand-new techniques to how it tackles its work. For circumstances, for the majority of the DSN’s history, each complex was run in your area. Now, with a procedure called “Follow the Sun,” each complex takes turns running the whole network throughout their day shift and after that hands off control to the next complex at the end of the day because area– basically, an international relay race that occurs every 24 hours.
Three distinctive posters including the bigger 70- meter (230- foot) antennas situated at the 3 Deep Space Network complexes worldwide are offered for download here. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The resulting expense savings have actually been fed into antenna improvements, and the effort has actually likewise enhanced the worldwide cooperation in between the complexes. “Each site works with the other sites, not just during handover periods, but also on maintenance and how antennas are performing on any given day. We’ve really turned into a globally operating network,” stated Levesque.
The network has actually likewise carried out brand-new techniques to handling deep area interactions. For circumstances, in the past, if numerous spacecraft circling Mars required to be serviced at the very same time, the network would need to point one antenna per spacecraft at Mars, possibly utilizing all the antennas at an offered complex. With a brand-new procedure, the DSN can get numerous signals from a single antenna and divided them in the digital receiver. “We adapted this from commercial telecommunication implementations to the benefit of our network efficiency,” stated Arnold.
An extra brand-new procedure enables operators to supervise numerous activities at the same time. Traditionally, each spacecraft activity had a single devoted operator. Now, the DSN utilizes a method that leverages automation to permit each operator to supervise numerous spacecraft links at the same time. For the very first time, the DSN can now totally automate the sequencing and execution of tracking passes, and the effort will continue to be boosted in time.
“The future of the DSN is going to follow the spirit and the drive of science missions that are flying out there. It’s our responsibility to enable them. And we do that through communications,” stated Arnold.
