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Upgrades
for NASA’s Deep Space Network Begin
NASA is upgrading
the Deep Space Network (DSN). NASA has selected Schwartz-Hautmont
Construcciones Metalicas S.A. of Tarragona, Spain, to build a new
antenna to be completed at the Madrid complex by November 2003.
The 34 met er
(112 ft) diameter  antenna
is the biggest portion of the US$54 million worth of improvements
that NASA's Office of Space Science, Office of Space Flight, and
Space Operations Management Office have set as priorities for
increasing the Deep Space Network's capabilities by late 2003.
Other parts of the plan will improve the capabilities of existing
antennas at all three of the network's tracking complexes: Madrid;
Canberra, Australia; and Goldstone, near Barstow, Calif.
In late 2003 and
early 2004, the United States, Europe and Japan will each have
missions arriving at Mars, two other spacecraft will be
encountering comets, and a third comet mission will launch.
Several other missions will have continuing communication needs.
NASA plans to land two rovers on Mars in early 2004. Projections
for demands on the network during the November 2003 to February
2004 period indicated the greatest need for increased
communications capacity would be at Madrid. Building a new
34-meter, antenna in Madrid would add about 70 hours of
spacecraft-tracking time per week during the periods when Mars is
in view of Madrid. The Madrid complex's current capacity is 210
hours within Mars view periods per week.
The
Deep Space Network is a global system for communicating with
interplanetary spacecraft. The Deep Space Network communicates
with spacecraft that are anywhere from near Earth to out past
Pluto. The network uses clusters of antennas at locations in
Spain, Australia, and California which are approximately 120
degrees apart in longitude, which enables continuous observation
and suitable overlap for transferring the spacecraft radio link
from one complex to the next. Each station has one 70 meter (230
ft) diameter antenna, plus several smaller ones. Jet Propulsion
Laboratory (JPL), a division of the California Institute of
Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, manages the network for NASA.
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