Sep 1, 2023 05:08 PM
(This post was last modified: Sep 1, 2023 05:09 PM by C C.)
https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/08/na...e-network/
EXCERPTS: NASA officials sounded an alarm Tuesday about the agency's Deep Space Network, a collection of antennas in California, Spain, and Australia used to maintain contact with missions scattered across the Solar System.
Everything from NASA's Artemis missions to the Moon to the Voyager probes in interstellar space rely on the Deep Space Network (DSN) to receive commands and transmit data back to Earth. Suzanne Dodd, who oversees the DSN in her position at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, likes to highlight the network's importance by showing gorgeous images from missions like the James Webb Space Telescope and the Perseverance rover on Mars.
"All these images, and all these great visuals for the public, and all the science for the scientists come down through the Deep Space Network," Dodd said Tuesday in a meeting of the NASA Advisory Council's Science Committee.
But Dodd doesn't take a starry-eyed view of the challenges operating the Deep Space Network. She said there are currently around 40 missions that rely on the DSN's antennas to stay in communication with controllers and scientists back on Earth. Another 40-plus missions will join the roster over the next decade or so, and many of the 40 missions currently using time on the network will likely still be operating over that time.
"We have more missions coming than we currently are flying," Dodd said. "We’re nearly doubling the load on the DSN. A lot of those are either lunar exploration or Artemis missions, and a lot of Artemis precursor missions with commercial vendors. So the load is increasing, and it’s very stressful to us.”
“It’s oversubscribed, yet it’s vital to anything the agency wants to do," she said.
[...] odd presented some numbers from late last year to highlight the problem. During the Artemis I mission, NASA's Orion spacecraft spent about 25 days traveling from Earth to a distant orbit around the Moon, then returned to a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. The Deep Space Network's antennas collectively spent 903 hours tracking and communicating with the Orion spacecraft during Artemis I.
[...] With limited resources and only so many antennas to go around, the Deep Space Network had to turn away from NASA's other science missions to focus on the Orion spacecraft and the CubeSats flying along with it.
“The missions that lost the most include James Webb, your flagship mission, 184 hours they gave up to support Artemis and CubeSats," Dodd said. The DSN also deferred more than 500 hours of planned maintenance time during Artemis I.
That translates to potential lost or delayed scientific results from the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope. Other missions that gave up more than 100 hours of time on the DSN during Artemis I included the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Mars Odyssey mission, and Europe's Mars Express.
“When Artemis comes online, everybody else moves out of the way, and it’s an impact to all the science missions, even the flagship science missions," Dodd said.
[...] This isn't the first time NASA officials have talked about the challenges facing the Deep Space Network, but the discussion with NASA advisers Tuesday presented the problem with renewed urgency.
“There are a dozen studies that go back 10 years that basically say the same thing as far as the DSN infrastructure is decaying, (and) funding needs to be provided for succession planning," Dodd said. “Did those reports work? I think they raised the issues and people acknowledged the issues, but from where I sit, we do not see action happening at the agency level.” (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: NASA officials sounded an alarm Tuesday about the agency's Deep Space Network, a collection of antennas in California, Spain, and Australia used to maintain contact with missions scattered across the Solar System.
Everything from NASA's Artemis missions to the Moon to the Voyager probes in interstellar space rely on the Deep Space Network (DSN) to receive commands and transmit data back to Earth. Suzanne Dodd, who oversees the DSN in her position at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, likes to highlight the network's importance by showing gorgeous images from missions like the James Webb Space Telescope and the Perseverance rover on Mars.
"All these images, and all these great visuals for the public, and all the science for the scientists come down through the Deep Space Network," Dodd said Tuesday in a meeting of the NASA Advisory Council's Science Committee.
But Dodd doesn't take a starry-eyed view of the challenges operating the Deep Space Network. She said there are currently around 40 missions that rely on the DSN's antennas to stay in communication with controllers and scientists back on Earth. Another 40-plus missions will join the roster over the next decade or so, and many of the 40 missions currently using time on the network will likely still be operating over that time.
"We have more missions coming than we currently are flying," Dodd said. "We’re nearly doubling the load on the DSN. A lot of those are either lunar exploration or Artemis missions, and a lot of Artemis precursor missions with commercial vendors. So the load is increasing, and it’s very stressful to us.”
“It’s oversubscribed, yet it’s vital to anything the agency wants to do," she said.
[...] odd presented some numbers from late last year to highlight the problem. During the Artemis I mission, NASA's Orion spacecraft spent about 25 days traveling from Earth to a distant orbit around the Moon, then returned to a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. The Deep Space Network's antennas collectively spent 903 hours tracking and communicating with the Orion spacecraft during Artemis I.
[...] With limited resources and only so many antennas to go around, the Deep Space Network had to turn away from NASA's other science missions to focus on the Orion spacecraft and the CubeSats flying along with it.
“The missions that lost the most include James Webb, your flagship mission, 184 hours they gave up to support Artemis and CubeSats," Dodd said. The DSN also deferred more than 500 hours of planned maintenance time during Artemis I.
That translates to potential lost or delayed scientific results from the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope. Other missions that gave up more than 100 hours of time on the DSN during Artemis I included the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Mars Odyssey mission, and Europe's Mars Express.
“When Artemis comes online, everybody else moves out of the way, and it’s an impact to all the science missions, even the flagship science missions," Dodd said.
[...] This isn't the first time NASA officials have talked about the challenges facing the Deep Space Network, but the discussion with NASA advisers Tuesday presented the problem with renewed urgency.
“There are a dozen studies that go back 10 years that basically say the same thing as far as the DSN infrastructure is decaying, (and) funding needs to be provided for succession planning," Dodd said. “Did those reports work? I think they raised the issues and people acknowledged the issues, but from where I sit, we do not see action happening at the agency level.” (MORE - missing details)