Automating Operations for a Network of Communications Antennas

The Deep Space Network (DSN) [1] was established in 1958 and since then it has evolved into the largest and most sensitive scientific telecommunications and radio navigation network in the world. The purpose of the DSN is to support unpiloted interplanetary spacecraft missions and support radio and radar astronomy observations in the exploration of the solar system and the universe. There are three deep space communications complexes, located in Canberra, Australia, Madrid, Spain, and Goldstone, California. Each DSN complex operates four deep space stations -one 70-meter antenna, two 34-meter antennas, and one 26-meter antenna. The functions of the DSN are to receive telemetry signals from spacecraft, transmit commands that control the spacecraft operating modes, generate the radio navigation data used to locate and guide the spacecraft to its destination, and acquire flight radio science, radio and radar astronomy, very long baseline interferometry, and geodynamics measurements.