Canberra DSN - DSS35, Antenna Construction Webcams Options

[Astro0]

Construction of the Deep Space Network's newest antenna - Deep Space Station 35 - reaches an important milestone this week.

Three major parts are now ready to be joined together in a massive operation starting in the next few days. The base structure and azimuth drives are already in place on the base track, and next to that the 34-metre dish structure and quadlegs and subreflector have been constructed.

The plan is to use a massive 600 tonne crane to lift the 125 tonne dish as a single piece and place it delicately on the base structure. Basically flying the dish more than 20 metres in the air. All going well, the next day the quad and subreflector will also be hoisted into place and bolted into the heart of the dish.



A dish has never been moved as a single piece before, so it will an amazing operation to watch.

And you can watch through three webcams*:
http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn/images/r...me/latestC1.jpg
http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn/images/r...me/latestC2.jpg
http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn/images/r...me/latestC4.jpg

The fun starts from 2100GMT Thursday 9th May, 2013
That's 0700 Friday 10th May in Canberra.

* webcams update every 30-60 seconds.