NASA breaks ground on new communications antenna
NASA has broken ground on the construction of the first new communications antenna since 2003 at its Goldstone, Californa, site, one of three the agency maintains worldwide for communicating with its planetary probes.
There has been a desperate need to both expand and upgrade this network, dubbed the Deep Space Network, for years, a need that will grow even more desperate next year with the addition of two more rovers on Mars.
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NASA has broken ground on the construction of the first new communications antenna since 2003 at its Goldstone, Californa, site, one of three the agency maintains worldwide for communicating with its planetary probes.
There has been a desperate need to both expand and upgrade this network, dubbed the Deep Space Network, for years, a need that will grow even more desperate next year with the addition of two more rovers on Mars.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
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3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
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You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Just think if Spacex is successful in establishing a presences on Mars in the coming decade with its Starship even if it’s only a small presences, how much the Deep Space Network would have to be upgraded. That’s a lot different than a few rovers and orbiters at Mars.
Are there comparable networks established in China, EU or Russia?
Chris: Doing a quick search on BtB for “Deep Space Network” I found two posts that are relevant. First, China has one antenna in Argentina which they say is used for their interplanetary probes: China’s unsupervised radio antenna in Argentina
Second, it appears that Europe has now built its own network as well. See this 2016 post: Keeping the Deep Space Network working
The DSN however appears to be the backbone, with the other systems designed as back-ups or supplements. China however would not be allowed to use the DSN, due to legal restrictions preventing NASA from working with them. They might however have agreements with Europe.
Q:
Whatever happened to the Greenbank radio telescope, in Virginia? Was that ever a part of the DSN?
(I know it collapsed 25+/- years ago and was rebuilt—didn’t they change the name to the Robert Byrd radio telescope (or some such rot)?
wayne: Greenbank was designed for radio astronomy, not communications. Entirely different thing.
I recall reading that the original Green Bank radio telescope was CIA sponsored, and designed to intercept internal USSR radio transmissions by capturing their reflection off of the moon! This would have been back in the day when the CIA spied on America’s ENEMIES.