【】

Large, white and rather dishy, NASA's latest spacecraft-tracking antenna unveiled on Thursday has an important job ahead of it.
Deep Space Station 36 (DSS36) joins NASA's Deep Space Network, in which it will play a role in future interplanetary missions undertaken by humans and robots.
SEE ALSO:This is what it looks like to come back to Earth from spaceIts home, the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex (CDSCC), has a long relationship with the U.S. space agency. In 2015, CDSCC was the first place to hear from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft when it flew close to Pluto.

"This antenna is the culmination of what has been a six-and-a-half-year expansion of the tracking station," Glen Nagle, CDSCC's manager of education and public outreach, told Mashable."It gives us additional capacity to be able to talk to new spacecraft in years to come, but also to support NASA's future journey to Mars."
NASA invested A$120 million ($91,603,800) in the project to expand its two-way communication capacity with spacecraft, according to the CSIRO. DSS36 joins the antenna DSS35, which launched in 2014.
Nagle said the two dishes, both 34 metres wide, are beam waveguide antennas. Rather than housing their transmitter receiver systems in the dish, the systems are located underground in a concrete cylinder two storeys underground.
"That further isolates the electronics," he explained. "It helps them to be a little bit more protected from radio frequency interference from around the local region and increase their overall sensitivity."

To have a deep space network, you need antennas around the world -- three stations, equidistant roughly around the planet, to have line of sight wherever the Earth is in its rotation. In addition to Canberra, DSN antennas are located in California and Madrid.
There are big plans ahead for the network. Australia has been working with NASA for well over 50 years, Nagle pointed out, but for the last 40 years or so, humans have not left Earth's orbit.
"Now of course, NASA is working toward the capacity with their new launch vehicles to take humans away from Earth's orbit again," he said. "To head back to the moon, to head maybe out to the nearest asteroid, and then of course on the road to Mars."
The CDSCC has already been part of the first test flights of NASA's new Orion spacecraft, which is intended for deep space missions. "If that goes well, a second mission, maybe taking people that time to lunar space again, extending our capabilities," Nagle said.

Of course, Australia doesn't have its own space agency, meaning we may never see a domestic mission.
Nagle's not worried. "We're not just handling missions for NASA here," he said. "Twenty-seven nations support us right now. They rely on us for that communication work.
"Think of it this way: We're kind of air traffic control for the universe here in Australia."
相关文章
These glasses hide a fitness tracker on your face
The last time a company tried popularizing wearable tech embedded in glasses, most notably with Goog2025-04-24- 國足龐大訓練營內卷到極致 兩場熱身後將裁員21人_李霄鵬_上海_球員www.ty42.com 日期:2022-01-13 11:01:00| 評論(已有325268條評論)2025-04-24
- 李霄鵬一期遭遇用人難題 豪華助教團邊看邊聽邊學_國足_訓練場_球員www.ty42.com 日期:2022-01-13 07:31:00| 評論(已有325199條評論)2025-04-24
- 氣勢如虹 !國米絕殺捧新年第一冠 下個目標是衛冕_因紮吉_軍團_意甲www.ty42.com 日期:2022-01-13 14:01:00| 評論(已有325307條評論)2025-04-24
This German startup wants to be your bank (without being a bank)
BERLIN -- “That is f*cking clever,” said Ben Floyd, 33, as we sat in a trendy cafe in Be2025-04-24- 女足亞洲杯首次設立獎金 冠軍100萬美元亞軍50萬美元_亞足聯_澳大利亞_媒體www.ty42.com 日期:2022-01-14 07:31:00| 評論(已有325437條評論)2025-04-24
最新评论