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Shadows on the DSS-14 Antenna
Please view "Goldstone DSN Tracking Station -- Mojave Desert" set (1 of 16 images)
Deep space communications are a challenge due to the enormous distances between the spacecraft and the Earth. Signals must travel millions or even billions of miles (km). Because the communications on a craft in deep space must be small, compact and light weight, they transmit at very low power, typically 20 watts or less about the same as a low-energy lightbulb. When the signal arrives at the antenna it can be as weak as a billionth of a watt- 20 billion times less energy than it takes to run a digital wristwatch.
To 'hear' the whisper of a signal sent from planetary distances in space (downlink) the receivers must be very large and equipped with extraordinarily sensitive receivers. Large collectors (antenna dishes) with surfaces that are precisely curved are crucial and must be pointed at the spacecraft.
Typically these antenna are built in arrays of multiple dishes such as the large array near Sirrocco New Mexico ( photographed by Pete Turner for Harper's Magazine and featured in the Jodie Foster movie 'Contact') or those at Goldstone, California, near Canberra Australia and near Madrid Spain.
The antennae at Goldstone or Canberra were the first (there's a difference of opinion on which was first) to receive signals when John Glenn reentered the Earth's atmosphere in the early 1960's.
The DSS-14 Mars Antenna at Goldstone measures 70 meters across its diameter (230 feet +/-) and it, along with similar antennae at Canberra and Madrid, are the largest parabolic radio telescope dishes ever constructed.
I admit to having been a 'space nut' for most of my adult life and I have wanted to visit the Goldstone complex for as long as I can remember. On a recent visit to JPL's Open House, I learned that tours are given to the public so I signed up and drove the 191 miles (one-way) between my home and Goldstone to take this tour. The tour lasted about two hours; total time to drive from my home and Goldstone round-trip was two hours and 45 minutes. That time does not include driving that was done during the tour (self driven following a guide car) between sites on the Goldstone reservation where antennas are located. I estimate that to have been an additional 25 to 30 miles. So by the end of the day I had driven 400 plus miles to accomplish my goal.
© Lawrence Goldman 2010, All Rights Reserved
This work may not be copied, reproduced, republished, edited, downloaded, displayed, modified, transmitted, licensed, transferred, sold, distributed or uploaded in any way without my prior written permission.
Shadows on the DSS-14 Antenna
Please view "Goldstone DSN Tracking Station -- Mojave Desert" set (1 of 16 images)
Deep space communications are a challenge due to the enormous distances between the spacecraft and the Earth. Signals must travel millions or even billions of miles (km). Because the communications on a craft in deep space must be small, compact and light weight, they transmit at very low power, typically 20 watts or less about the same as a low-energy lightbulb. When the signal arrives at the antenna it can be as weak as a billionth of a watt- 20 billion times less energy than it takes to run a digital wristwatch.
To 'hear' the whisper of a signal sent from planetary distances in space (downlink) the receivers must be very large and equipped with extraordinarily sensitive receivers. Large collectors (antenna dishes) with surfaces that are precisely curved are crucial and must be pointed at the spacecraft.
Typically these antenna are built in arrays of multiple dishes such as the large array near Sirrocco New Mexico ( photographed by Pete Turner for Harper's Magazine and featured in the Jodie Foster movie 'Contact') or those at Goldstone, California, near Canberra Australia and near Madrid Spain.
The antennae at Goldstone or Canberra were the first (there's a difference of opinion on which was first) to receive signals when John Glenn reentered the Earth's atmosphere in the early 1960's.
The DSS-14 Mars Antenna at Goldstone measures 70 meters across its diameter (230 feet +/-) and it, along with similar antennae at Canberra and Madrid, are the largest parabolic radio telescope dishes ever constructed.
I admit to having been a 'space nut' for most of my adult life and I have wanted to visit the Goldstone complex for as long as I can remember. On a recent visit to JPL's Open House, I learned that tours are given to the public so I signed up and drove the 191 miles (one-way) between my home and Goldstone to take this tour. The tour lasted about two hours; total time to drive from my home and Goldstone round-trip was two hours and 45 minutes. That time does not include driving that was done during the tour (self driven following a guide car) between sites on the Goldstone reservation where antennas are located. I estimate that to have been an additional 25 to 30 miles. So by the end of the day I had driven 400 plus miles to accomplish my goal.
© Lawrence Goldman 2010, All Rights Reserved
This work may not be copied, reproduced, republished, edited, downloaded, displayed, modified, transmitted, licensed, transferred, sold, distributed or uploaded in any way without my prior written permission.