![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/GettyImages-1158020682.jpg\")
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An antenna at NASA\u2019s Deep Space Network station near Madrid.<\/p>\n
Credit:
\n Ricardo Rubio\/Europa Press via Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
Because astronauts are involved, the Artemis missions will come with unique requirements on the DSN.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not going to have bits of data. We\u2019re going to have gigabits of data,\u201d said Philip Baldwin, acting director of the network services division for NASA\u2019s Space Communications and Navigation program. \u201cI don\u2019t want 1080p for video resolution. I want 8K video.\u201d<\/p>\n
Each of the three stations on the Deep Space Network has a 70-meter (230-foot) dish antenna, the largest antennas in the world for deep space communications. Each location also has at least three 112-foot (34-meter) antennas. The oldest of the large antennas in California entered service in 1966, then was enlarged to its 70-meter diameter in 1988.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have reached a really critical point on the DSN\u2019s aging infrastructure,\u201d said Sandra Cauffman, deputy director of NASA\u2019s astrophysics division.<\/p>\n
Artemis I case study<\/h2>\n
Dodd presented some numbers from late last year to highlight the problem. During the Artemis I mission, NASA\u2019s 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\u2019s antennas collectively spent 903 hours tracking and communicating with the Orion spacecraft during Artemis I.<\/p>\n
,<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s more to the story. There were 10 small rideshare secondary payloads that flew into deep space on the Space Launch System rocket on Artemis I. These CubeSats ranged in size from a shoebox to a briefcase, with small antennas and low-power transmitters that required large antennas on Earth to make a reliable connection.<\/p>\n
Eight of these CubeSats were tracked with the DSN, according to Dodd. \u201cThey got 871 hours of tracking, nearly as much as Artemis for eight little CubeSats,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not sure who thought it was a good idea to put up (so many) CubeSats with Artemis I,\u201d Dodd said.<\/p>\n This chart shows usage of the Deep Space Network (in hours) during the Artemis I mission in late 2022, illustrating the time devoted to the Orion spacecraft and the CubeSat secondary payloads.<\/p>\n Credit: With limited resources and only so many antennas to go around, the Deep Space Network had to turn away from NASA\u2019s other science missions to focus on the Orion spacecraft and the CubeSats flying along with it.<\/p>\n \u201cThe missions that lost the most include James Webb, your flagship mission, 184 hours they gave up to support Artemis and CubeSats,\u201d Dodd said. The DSN also deferred more than 500 hours of planned maintenance time during Artemis I.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s Mars Express.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Artemis comes online, everybody else moves out of the way, and it\u2019s an impact to all the science missions, even the flagship science missions,\u201d Dodd said.<\/p>\n Small satellites like CubeSats are common in low-Earth orbit, providing commercial remote sensing and data relay services, along with offering researchers an opportunity to perform experiments at much lower cost than if they flew on a larger spacecraft. NASA wants to use CubeSats more in deep space exploration for missions to the Moon, Mars, and asteroids.<\/p>\n ,<\/p>\n What makes CubeSats appealing to NASA and research scientists is what makes them unappealing to the Deep Space Network, Dodd said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re quick, they\u2019re not well-tested. They use little antennas,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen they get in trouble, they need a really big antenna to find them\u2026 Do you want these CubeSats to take as much time (on the DSN) as James Webb?\u201d<\/p>\n Most of the rideshare payloads on Artemis I encountered trouble after deploying from their dispensers on the SLS rocket, and some were never heard from after the launch. This took time on the DSN antennas to attempt to locate and restore communication with the CubeSats. The network\u2019s largest antennas are often used to communicate with spacecraft experiencing emergencies.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen your DSN is oversubscribed, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a good use to put throwaway missions on the same set of antennas. Throwaway is probably not polite\u2026 They have a place. But their place, in my mind, is really not on the DSN, at least not in these numbers. Half of these missions were probably dead before they even launched out of the ring because of the design.\u201d<\/p>\n This chart shows increasing demand on the Deep Space Network from science, commercial, and Artemis missions. The spikes in activity represent Artemis missions to the Moon.<\/p>\n Credit: \u201cCubeSats are often advertised as being this panacea for all of our future science,\u201d said Sara Tucker, a staff consultant at Ball Aerospace and a member of the committee that heard from NASA officials Tuesday. \u201cThey\u2019re cheap. They\u2019re easy. We can throw them up. If they don\u2019t work, we\u2019ll just throw up more. But it is clearly presenting a non-negligible burden here.\u201d<\/p>\n NASA hasn\u2019t made a final decision on whether the next Artemis mission, Artemis II, will have any CubeSats aboard. Artemis II is set for launch in late 2024 or 2025 with four astronauts who will fly around the far side of the Moon inside their Orion capsule. NASA is planning to accommodate CubeSats on later Artemis missions.<\/p>\n ,<\/p>\n Later this decade, NASA will call upon the DSN to support not just the Orion crew spacecraft traveling to and from the Moon on Artemis missions, but also the Gateway mini-space station the agency plans to build in lunar orbit. Commercial human-rated Moon landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin, along with commercial robotic landing vehicles, will also rely on the DSN for connectivity with Earth. Just last week, the DSN was in communication with India\u2019s Chandrayaan 3 lander as it descended to the lunar surface.<\/p>\n Dodd said NASA managers overseeing the commercial lunar mission contracts are \u201creally committing the DSN asset without asking, \u2018What does the loading do to everybody else?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know how it\u2019s all going to play together,\u201d Dodd said. \u201cBut right now, it looks a bit like a mess. Looking at this chart and looking out in the 2030s, that really scares us.\u201d<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThere 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,\u201d Dodd said. \u201cDid 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.\u201d<\/p>\n NASA\u2019s inspector general last month found that demand on the DSN sometimes exceeds supply by as much as 40 percent. Limitations in capacity have \u201calready impacted agency missions\u2019 ability to fully meet objectives and achieve full return on investment,\u201d the inspector general wrote in an audit of the DSN.<\/p>\n ,<\/p>\n \u201cAs crewed Artemis missions come online and receive priority over uncrewed missions such as the JWST and Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover, missions will be challenged to schedule DSN time and may not receive the full amount of capacity they require for timely navigation and data transfer,\u201d the inspector general wrote.<\/p>\n The agency\u2019s internal watchdog said a project to upgrade the three DSN sites with more 34-meter antennas and higher-power transmitters is five years behind schedule, and the cost of the upgrades has increased to $706 million. That expense takes a long time to pay off for the DSN\u2019s budget account, which has fallen from an annual level of about $250 million in 2010 to about $200 million today.<\/p>\n NASA originally planned to replace the 70-meter antennas with an array of newer 34-meter antennas at each DSN station, but the agency has decided to keep the aging 70-meter dishes operating, according to the inspector general\u2019s report.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re looking for infrastructure, it\u2019s hard to convince anybody to support infrastructure funding versus a cool vehicle to go to the Moon,\u201d Baldwin said.<\/p>\n About $45 million in additional funding per year could allow the DSN team to bolster the network\u2019s infrastructure and hire more staff to provide 24-hour support at all three stations, according to Dodd. Some older antennas could also be brought back into service to meet the increasing demand, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we want to get DSN back to a reliable future, we need to recover from these years of decline,\u201d Dodd said. She added that astronauts could be endangered if the DSN goes offline during an Artemis mission to the Moon.<\/p>\n After making these proposals to NASA leadership, \u201cthe number coming back is zero,\u201d Dodd said. \u201cI think we could definitely use some advocacy within the agency.\u201d<\/p>\n ,<\/p>\n This view of the Earth and the Moon was captured by a camera on NASA\u2019s Orion<\/em> spacecraft on the Artemis I mission and was then transmitted to the Deep Space Network.<\/p>\n Credit: The NASA inspector general recommended the agency explore more efficient options for scheduling time on the Deep Space Network, such as maintaining a list of priority missions that is widely accessible.<\/p>\n \u201cDuring Artemis (missions), the simple priorities are Artemis, and then James Webb, and maybe then the CubeSats, something like that,\u201d Dodd said. \u201cBut you also have to factor in the maintenance. The DSN maintenance has to be a priority.\u201d<\/p>\n NASA is in the early stages of planning a new network of communications stations around the world dedicated to lunar missions, which often don\u2019t require the largest antennas on the DSN. These new antennas won\u2019t be operational until 2027 and won\u2019t solve the whole problem facing the Deep Space Network, which will still support Artemis missions, NASA\u2019s inspector general said.<\/p>\n One longer-term solution may be laser communications, which would not use the DSN at all. NASA will launch a laser communications package with the Psyche asteroid mission in October to demonstrate long-range optical data transmissions from the asteroid belt.<\/p>\n The space agency also plans to purchase data relay services from commercial satellites that companies plan to deploy around the Moon. These relay satellites will be particularly useful for missions to the south pole and far side of the Moon, where direct-to-Earth data links are partially or completely blocked.<\/p>\n NASA relies on commercial ground stations for more than half of its ground station support for the agency\u2019s satellites in low-Earth orbit. NASA last year selected SpaceX, Amazon, Viasat, Telecast, SES, and Inmarsat to begin developing commercial capabilities to replace the government-owned Tracking and Data Relay Satellite network, which is used for near-continuous connectivity with the International Space Station and other satellites closer to Earth.<\/p>\n But NASA says there\u2019s no commercial alternative to the DSN\u2019s largest antennas.<\/p>\n \u201cOne thing about the Deep Space Network is it\u2019s not like what exists in the commercial market,\u201d Baldwin said. \u201cOften there\u2019s confusion about what the industry is able to do versus what the DSN can support. What DSN does is very unique, and (there\u2019s) not an easy analogy to what\u2019s available in the commercial market.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NASA officials sounded an alarm Tuesday about the agency\u2019s 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\u2019s Artemis missions to the Moon to the Voyager probes in interstellar space rely on the Deep Space Network (DSN) to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2523,2994,9776,190],"class_list":["post-45933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-deep-space-network","tag-dsn","tag-jet-propulsion-lab","tag-nasa"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45933"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/art1dsn.jpg\")
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\n NASA<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/dsnfuture.jpg\")
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\n NASA<\/p>\n<\/figure>\nWhat\u2019s being done?<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/52536466213_cc0d32b3ff_k.jpg\")
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\n NASA<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n