Deep Space Communications: Goldstone Dish Antennas 1991 NASA

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“Goldstone is a complex of deep space communications antennas that command and receive information from satellites or receive information from satellites or about distant stars and galaxies. The video feature discusses the Goldstone complex and its 30 plus years of service to NASA.”

Public domain film from NASA, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied.
The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization.

The Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex (GDSCC)—commonly called the Goldstone Observatory—is located in California’s Mojave Desert. Operated for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, its main purpose is to track and communicate with space missions. It includes the Pioneer Deep Space Station, which is a U.S. National Historic Landmark. The current observatory is part of NASA’s Deep Space Network. The Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex is one of just three in the world; the others being the Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex and the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex…

Antennas

Goldstone antennas have also been used as sensitive radio telescopes for such scientific investigations as mapping quasars and other celestial radio sources; radar mapping planets, the Moon, comets and asteroids; spotting comets and asteroids with the potential to strike Earth; and the search for ultra-high energy neutrino interactions in the moon by using large-aperture radio antennas…

The Deep Space Network, or DSN, is a world-wide network of large antennas and communication facilities that supports 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). Other similar networks include ESTRACK of the European Space Agency, the Soviet Deep Space Network, the Indian Deep Space Network, and the Chinese Deep Space Network…

History

The forerunner of the DSN was established in January 1958, when JPL, then under contract to the U.S. Army, deployed portable radio tracking stations in Nigeria, Singapore, and California to receive telemetry and plot the orbit of the Army-launched Explorer 1, the first successful U.S. satellite. NASA was officially established on October 1, 1958, to consolidate the separately developing space-exploration programs of the US Army, US Navy, and US Air Force into one civilian organization.

On December 3, 1958, JPL was transferred from the US Army to NASA and given responsibility for the design and execution of lunar and planetary exploration programs using remotely-controlled spacecraft. Shortly after the transfer NASA established the concept of the Deep Space Network as a separately managed and operated communications system that would accommodate all deep space missions, thereby avoiding the need for each flight project to acquire and operate its own specialized space communications network. The DSN was given responsibility for its own research, development, and operation in support of all of its users. Under this concept, it has become a world leader in the development of low-noise receivers; large parabolic-dish antennas; tracking, telemetry, and command systems; digital signal processing; and deep space navigation.

The largest antennas of the DSN are often called on during spacecraft emergencies… The most famous example is the Apollo 13 mission, where limited battery power and inability to use the spacecraft’s high gain antennas reduced signal levels below the capability of the Manned Space Flight Network…

Antennas

Each complex consists of at least four deep space terminals equipped with ultra-sensitive receiving systems and large parabolic-dish antennas. There are:

– One 34-metre (112 ft) diameter High Efficiency antenna.
– One or more 34-metre (112 ft) Beam waveguide antennas (three at the Goldstone Complex, two at the Robledo de Chavela complex (near Madrid), and one at the Canberra Complex).
– One 26-metre (85 ft) antenna.
– One 70-metre (230 ft) antenna.

Five of the 34-metre (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-metre (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 need to be built… The first of the new antennas will be coming online by 2014 to 2016…