NASA Deep Space Network
The NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) is a worldwide network of spacecraft communication ground segment facilities, located in the United States (California), Spain (Madrid), and Australia (Canberra), that supports NASA's interplanetary spacecraft missions. It also performs radio and radar astronomy observations for the exploration of the Solar System and the universe, and supports selected Earth-orbiting missions. DSN is part of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
"Deep Space Network" redirects here. For other uses, see Deep Space Network (disambiguation).Alternative names
NASA Deep Space Network
Pasadena, Los Angeles County, California, Pacific States Region
October 1, 1958
65 years ago
Barstow, California, United States
Barstow, California, United States
Robledo de Chavela, Community of Madrid, Spain
Canberra, Australia
Management[edit]
The network is a NASA facility and is managed and operated for NASA by JPL, which is part of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). The Interplanetary Network Directorate (IND) manages the program within JPL and is charged with the development and operation of it. The IND is considered to be JPL's focal point for all matters relating to telecommunications, interplanetary navigation, information systems, information technology, computing, software engineering, and other relevant technologies. While the IND is best known for its duties relating to the Deep Space Network, the organization also maintains the JPL Advanced Multi-Mission Operations System (AMMOS) and JPL's Institutional Computing and Information Services (ICIS).[20][21]
The facilities in Spain and Australia are jointly owned and operated in conjunction with that government's scientific institutions. In Australia, "the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), an Australian
Commonwealth Government Statutory Authority, established the CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science Division to manage the day-to-day operations, engineering, and maintenance activities of the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex".[22] Most of the staff at Tidbinbilla are Australian government employees; the land and buildings are owned by the Australian government; NASA provides the bulk of the funding, owns the movable property (such as dishes and electronic equipment) which it has paid for, and gets to decide where to point the dishes.[23] Similarly, in Spain, "Ingenieria de Sistemas para la Defensa de España S.A. (ISDEFE), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial (INTA) and a part of the Spanish Department of Defense, operates and maintains the Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex (Madrid)".[22]
Peraton (formerly Harris Corporation) is under contract to JPL for the DSN's operations and maintenance. Peraton has responsibility for managing the Goldstone complex, operating the DSOC, and for DSN operations, mission planning, operations engineering, and logistics.[24][25][26]
Each complex consists of at least four deep space terminals equipped with ultra-sensitive receiving systems and large parabolic-dish antennas. There are:
Five of the 34-meter (112 ft) beam waveguide antennas were added to the system in the late 1990s. Three were located at Goldstone, and one each at Canberra and Madrid. A second 34-meter (112 ft) beam waveguide antenna (the network's sixth) was completed at the Madrid complex in 2004.
In order to meet the current and future needs of deep space communication services, a number of new Deep Space Station antennas had to be built at the existing Deep Space Network sites. At the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex the first of these was completed in October 2014 (DSS35), with a second becoming operational in October 2016 (DSS36).[27] A new 34 meter dish (DSS53) became operational at the Madrid complex in February 2022.[28]
By 2025, the 70-meter antennas at all three locations will be decommissioned and replaced with 34-meter BWG antennas that will be arrayed. All systems will be upgraded to have X-band uplink capabilities and both X and Ka-band downlink capabilities.[29]
There are a number of limitations to the current DSN, and a number of challenges going forward.