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.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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.