A new Deep Space Network for the next century

Abstract

NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) is responsible for providing communications, tracking, and science services to most of the world's non-geostationary spacecraft that travel beyond low Earth orbit. Changes occurring to the DSN's customers are forcing the DSN to change substantially. Spacecraft tracked by the DSN are becoming smaller and cheaper, while still requiring significant science returns. This places increased demands on the DSN to adopt new technologies and improve the quality of the services it provides. Some of these technologies include beam waveguide antennas, Ka-band communications, cooled HEMT amplifiers, adaptive microwave optics, new error correcting codes, and ultra-stable ionic frequency standards. At the same time, budget constraints from NASA have resulted in a significant decrease in funds spent on mission operations-including the DSN. This means the DSN must adopt all this new technology while halving the average cost for each tracking hour it provides. The DSN will achieve this increase in efficiency by a complete reengineering of its operations processes-redefining operations jobs and taking advantage of advances in information systems technology and automation. This paper describes both the new technologies and new operations concepts that, together, will allow the DSN to continue its leadership in deep space communications and tracking.