Communications Strategies, How can the Deep-Space Network be improved on? |
Communications Strategies, How can the Deep-Space Network be improved on? |
Dec 20 2007, 07:04 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1018 Joined: 29-November 05 From: Seattle, WA, USA Member No.: 590 |
Given the recent news that Cassini will lose some data during the Phoenix landing due to contention for DNS access:
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...ic=4831&hl= It seemed reasonable to create a topic to discuss where the DNS might be going. Jasedm suggested a relay station at the Earth-Sun L2 point, which I think might be discussing (despite the expense) assuming the relay station could use laser communication with space probes, while beaming data to Earth via microwaves. I know that experiments with laser communications were part of the now-abandoned Mars Telecommunications Orbiter, and I know that there was even a recent laser experiment involving Mercury Messenger. http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/060104_laser_comm.html These seem intended to support laser communications with ground-based receivers, though -- something that seems much too risky if remote space probes can't store days of data allowing for multiple retries. Obviously a relay station would have its own risks -- you'd probably need two for redundancy -- and it'd be fabulously expensive, but it might also include quite a few savings as well. I've looked for figures for what the DSN costs to run, but I haven't found them yet. Not sure how large a part of a given mission (if any) is charged to the DSN, but it seems to me that a relay satellite ought to be a good bit cheaper to operate, and for far higher bandwidth. Also, a laser transmitter ought to be lighter and consume less power than an equivalent microwave transmitter. That alone could result in huge savings for outer-system missions. The only time I saw a serious proposal for a laser-to-satellite communications system was in a description of options for the "Grand Tour" that later became Voyager. (Assuming that counts as serious.) :-) With DSN needing more and more maintenance, I wonder if anyone is seriously considering laser for the future. --Greg |
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Jan 18 2008, 09:11 AM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1870 Joined: 20-February 05 Member No.: 174 |
Exactly. And 34 of those -- with sufficient smarts -- can re-deploy to give lower aperture equivalents to 2 or 3 vehicles at once and provide more capability to handle more than one task at once.
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