Citation
Abstract
With the advent of faster, cheaper planetary missions, the coming decade promises a significant growth in the number of missions that will be simultaneously supported by NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN). In addition, new types of missions will stretch our deep-space communications capabilities. Ambitious outer-planet missions, with extremely tenuous communications links due to their great distances, and data-intensive orbiter or in situ missions incorporating highbandwidth science instruments will demand improved telecommunications capabilities. Ultimately, our ability to create a virtual presence throughout the solar system will be directly linked to our overall deep-space telecommunications capacity. The Telecommunications and Mission Operations Directorate (TMOD) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which operates NASA’s Deep Space Network, has developed a road map for deep-space telecommunications through the year 2010 that meets these challenges. Key aspects of this road map are: (1) a move to efficient, standard communications services; (2) development of an end-to-end flight-ground communications architecture and coordination of flight and ground technology developments; and (3) rapid infusion of Ka-band (32-GHz) and optical communications technologies into the DSN and into future spacecraft. This article presents this road map, describes how it supports an increasing mission set while also providing significantly increased science data return, summarizes the current state of key Ka-band and optical communications technologies, and identifies critical path items in terms of technology developments, demonstrations, and mission users.
Keywords
Details
- Volume
- 42-136
- Published
- February 15, 1999
- Pages
- 1–20
- File Size
- 597.2 KB