[X] My Assistant

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

There's a new presentation entitled "Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Telecommunications" on the JPL DESCANSO Design & Performance Summary Series web page (scroll to the bottom).

[djellison]

An impact - but not a HUGE one - most of the downlink for MRO is 34m based. There are 14 Xband 35m passes per week, and only 3 70m passes. Yes - higher speed with the 70m, but given that it's only 3 passes, they can be offset away from the down-dish.

Colin Clark should be picked up on this one... "a result of a longer than planned shutdown of one of the three antennas that comprise Deep Space Network (DSN),"

The DSN is only 3 dishes is it Colin?... that's just lazy journalism..Each of the three sites has at least four dishes, and a total of 15 I believe.

However there is no doubt that the DSN is in need of serious investment - a good case could be made for several more 35m's at each site - that could be used in an array ( as has already been demonstrated ) for the typical 70m requirements. A concerted effort across the whole network (perhaps even internationally) to build perhaps 6 or 9 identical dishes to reduce costs would be a wise move.

Doug