Testing and installation complete for NASA's Deep Space Network antennas
NewsJune 16, 2016
SAN JOSE, Calif. Engineers at General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies completed the installation and testing of two of NASA?s 34-meter beam waveguide antennas, which will improve communications and tracking of space probes on Mars and other spacecraft. The antenna?s are part of NASA?s Deep Space Network (DSN) and will also help scientists explore the universe.
“These huge antennas are precision scientific instruments that can pinpoint a location in the universe billions of miles from Earth while connecting scientists with space probes that have left our solar system,” says Mike DiBiase, a vice president and general manager of General Dynamics Mission Systems. “Each antenna is the width of a football field and weighs about 600,000 tons, about the same weight as two commercial cruise ships.”
The design of the beam waveguide-style antenna houses sensitive electronics and systems in a room that is inside the antenna’s ground-based pedestal, which makes it easier for technicians to perform maintenance and upgrades.
General Dynamics with the collaboration of engineers at Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s have built nine 34-meter antennas for the DSN, as well as upgraded 64-meter and 70-meter antennas built in the 1960s. NASA's DSN is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
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