New Horizon 4.78 Billion Kilometer data links ... information that helps us understand how this works

[Ralph Wallio, W0RPK]

*The New Horizons spacecraft at Pluto enjoyed recent well-deserved 
publicity but 4.78 Billion Kilometer data links ... how does that 
work?   When I asked this question of friend and ***AMSAT colleague 
*Courtney Duncan, N5BF, Supervising Senior Engineer and Principal 
Investigator with NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL), he responded with 
links to very helpful information.  Perhaps there are n**umerous AMRAD 
Tacos readers who will also be interested.

New Horizons and numerous other distant spacecraft (Voyager-1 is 
currently at 19.65 Billion Kilometers) communicate through NASA/JPL's 
Deep Space Network (DSN), http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/. Interesting 
real-time network status is available via 
https://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html. Select an antenna currently 
communicating, with the New Horizons spacecraft (NHPC) for example, and 
then select "More Detail" near the lower right-hand corner.  New 
Horizons and Voyager spacecraft links are using DSN 70m antennas, DSS-14 
at Goldstone, DSS-43 at Canberra and DSS-63 at Madrid.

Much more DSN data link technical discussion and standards are available 
from the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS), 
http://public.ccsds.org/default.aspx. Space Link Services documents are 
available via http://public.ccsds.org/publications/SLS.aspx. The DSN 
Deep Space Network Services Catalog is available via 
https://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/files/dsn/820-100-F1.pdf.

Papers discussing information specific to New Horizons spacecraft data 
link systems are available.  Here is a selection to consider:

The RF Telecommunications System for the New Horizons Mission to Pluto
http://www.boulder.swri.edu/~tcase/NH%20RF%20Telecom%20Sys%20ID1369%20FINAL_Deboy.pdf

Flexible Coherent Digital Transceiver for Low Power Space Missions
http://www.boulder.swri.edu/~tcase/Coherent%20Digital%20Transceiver%20Paper_Haskins.pdf

THE NEW HORIZONS MISSION TO PLUTO: ADVANCES IN TELECOMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM 
DESIGN
http://www.boulder.swri.edu/~tcase/IAF%202004%20New%20Horizons%20Advances%20in%20CommSysr1_Deboy.pdf

A Regenerative Pseudonoise Range Tracking System for the New Horizons 
Spacecraft
http://www.boulder.swri.edu/~tcase/NH%20Regenerative%20PN%20Ranging%20Paper_Haskins.pdf

X-band Digital Receiver for the New Horizons Spacecraft
http://www.boulder.swri.edu/~tcase/NH%20Uplink%20Card%20Paper_Haskins.pdf

TNX es 73 de Ralph Wallio, W0RPK

*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.amrad.org/pipermail/tacos/attachments/20150721/0da3a886/attachment.html>