Radio Frequency Optics Design of the 12-Meter Antenna for the Array-Based Deep Space Network

Development of very large arrays of small antennas has been proposed as a way to increase the downlink capability of the NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) by two or three orders of magnitude, thereby enabling greatly increased science data from currently configured missions or enabling new mission concepts. The current concept is for an array of 400 × 12-meter antennas at each of three longitudes. The DSN array will utilize radio astronomy sources for phase calibration and will have wide bandwidth correlation processing for this purpose. JPL currently is building a 3-element interferometer composed of 6-meter antennas to prove the performance and cost of the DSN array. This article describes the radio frequency (RF) design of the 12-meter reflector that will use the same feed and electronics as the 6-meter antenna. The 6-meter antenna utilized Gregorian optics to enable tests with a low-frequency prime focus feed without removing the subreflector. However, for the 12-meter antenna, maximum gain divided by noise temperature (G/T ) is the overriding requirement, and a trade-off study demonstrated that Cassegrain optics is far superior to Gregorian optics for maximum G/T . Hence, the 12-meter antenna utilizes Cassegrain optics.