December 24 is the 60th anniversary of NASA’s Deep Space Network. The Deep Space Network has been operating continuously since 1963 and is the basis for NASA's communications with spacecraft on or beyond the moon. Dazzling images of the Milky Way captured by the James Webb Space Telescope, cutting-edge science data sent back from Mars by the Perseverance rover, and historic images sent from the far side of the moon by Artemis I - all reach Earth via the network's giant radio dishes.

This artist's concept shows what Deep Space Station-23, a new antenna dish capable of supporting both radio wave and laser communications, will look like after completion at the Deep Space Network complex in Goldstone, California. Image source: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN), which provides critical communications and navigation services to dozens of space missions, is being modernized to support more space missions.

These and other historic contributions over the past 60 years will be celebrated during 2024 by NASA's Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program, which manages and directs the ground facilities and services provided by DSN.

More than 40 missions rely on the network, and it is expected that the network will support twice that number over the next few years. So NASA is looking to the future to expand and modernize this important global infrastructure with new dishes, new technologies and new approaches.

The radio antenna at NASA's Deep Space Communications Center in Canberra is located near Australia's capital city. It is one of three Deep Space Network complexes worldwide, keeping the agency connected to more than 40 space missions. December 2023 is the 60th anniversary of DSN. Image source: NASA/JPL-Caltech

"The DSN is the heart of NASA - it is responsible for keeping data flowing between Earth and space," said Philip Baldwin, acting director of SCaN Network Services at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "But to support our growing portfolio of robotic missions, and now Artemis, the human mission to the moon, we need to advance the next phase of DSN modernization."

Meet new needs

The DSN is managed for SCaN by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, allowing missions to track, send commands to distant spacecraft and receive science data. To ensure that these spacecraft can always stay connected to Earth, the Deep Space Network's 14 antennas are located in three complexes around the world, including Goldstone, California, Canberra, Australia, and Madrid, Spain.

The Deep Space Network is more than just a deep space information service. Learn more about how DSN conducts radio and gravity science experiments throughout the solar system. Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech

To ensure that the network can maximize coverage across so many tasks, dispatchers work with DSN team members to ensure network support for critical operations. To improve efficiency, NASA also changed the way the network operates: Through a protocol called "Follow the Sun," each consortium takes turns running the entire network during the day shift, then hands control to the next consortium at the end of the day shift in that area—essentially, a global relay race that takes place every 24 hours. The cost savings in turn provide funding for enhanced DSN.

Meanwhile, NASA has been busy improving the system to increase capacity, from upgrading and adding antennas to developing new technologies that will help support more spacecraft and dramatically increase the amount of data that can be transmitted.

One such technology is laser or optical communications, which can include more data in the transmission. "Laser communications could change the way NASA communicates with distant space missions," said Amy Smith, deputy program manager for JPLDSN.

In this photo taken in 1969, six years after the founding of the DSN, there is only a single radio antenna radome at the Deep Space Network's Canberra complex. Canberra now consists of three 34-meter (112-foot) antennas and one 70-meter (230-foot) antenna. Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech

After successfully testing the technology in Earth orbit and on the moon, NASA is now using the DSOC (Deep Space Optical Communications) technology demonstration to test laser communications over longer distances. DSOC, aboard the agency's Psyche mission, has already beamed video to Earth via laser from 19 million miles (31 million kilometers) away, with the goal of demonstrating that high-bandwidth data can be sent from distant Mars.

"NASA is proving that laser communications are possible, so we are now looking at how to build optical terminals within existing radio antennas. These hybrid antennas can still transmit and receive radio frequencies, but also support optical frequencies," Smith said.

An artist's rendering of NASA's Deep Space Network's 230-foot-wide Deep Space Station 14 antenna, superimposed on a football field to show scale. Source: NASA

technological heritage

NASA and the Deep Space Network have embraced new technologies from the beginning. The origins of the network date back to 1958, when JPL contracted with the U.S. Army to deploy portable radio tracking stations to receive telemetry data from Explorer 1, the first successful U.S. satellite built by JPL. Just days after the launch of Explorer 1 and before NASA was established later that year, JPL was charged with determining what was needed to create an unprecedented telecommunications network to support future deep space missions, starting with the early Pioneer missions.

After NASA was established in 1958, JPL's ground stations were named "Deep Space Instrumentation Facilities". Before 1963, they basically operated independently. In 1963, DSN was officially established, with the ground station connected to JPL's new network control center, which was about to be completed. Known as the Space Flight Operations Facility, this building remains the "Center of the Universe" through which data from DSN's three global complexes are transmitted.

"We have been driving technological innovation for sixty years, supporting hundreds of missions that have led to countless discoveries about our planet and the universe it inhabits," said Bradford Arnold, deputy director of JPL's Interstellar Network. "Our amazing workforce continues to drive this innovation today, laying a solid foundation for our next 60 years of space exploration and scientific advancement.""

Compiled source: ScitechDaily