A Visit to Goldstone

The DSN comprises three Deep Space Network (DSN) Communication Complexes. To compensate for Earth’s rotation and allow 24 – hour communication with distant spacecraft, the complexes are located about 120 degrees apart in longitude. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, manages the DSN for NASA.

The Australian complex is located 40 kilometers (25 miles) southwest of Canberra near the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve. The Spanish complex is located 60 kilometers (37 miles) west of Madrid at Robledo de Chavela. The Goldstone complex is located on the U.S. Army’s Fort Irwin Military Reservation, approximately 72 kilometers (45 miles) northeast of Barstow, CA. Each complex is situated in semi – mountainous, bowl – shaped terrain to shield against radio frequency interference.

Recently, a group of Cassini – Huygens Mission outreach and science planning staff scheduled a visit to Goldstone. It’s been on my list of things to do and places to see for a long time, so I signed up immediately.

After a two and a half hour drive from JPL, our tour began at the Goldstone museum where three large areas are dedicated to current missions, past missions, and Deep Space Network history – plus there is a hands – on activity room for children. The guided tour then travels around the 53 – square – mile complex to view the large antennas. Outside the administrative buildings and museum stands DSS – 12 Echo, a 34 – meter antenna dish named for Project Echo, an experiment that bounced signals off the surface of a balloon – type satellite. Now decommissioned, it is used by the Lewis Center for Educational Research in Apple Valley. GAVRT, the Goldstone Apple Valley Radio Telescope project offers students in classrooms across America the opportunity to participate in radio astronomy thought the internet.

The DSN has been the communications link to NASA’s robotic spacecraft since 1958. These now legendary missions include five Surveyor landings on the moon in the 1960’s; the Mariner journeys to Venus, Mars and Mercury from 1962 to 1973; the Pioneers’ travels to Jupiter and Saturn in the 1970’s; and the journeys of the twin Viking landers and orbiters to Mars in the mid – 1970’s. The DSN link was critical to the 1977 – 1989 Voyagers as they sent back unforgettable images of the Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune systems. Now the DSN supports the Voyager Interstellar Mission. Thanks to DSN, we had 14 years of returned detailed photographs from Galileo, communications with Mars Pathfinder and the robot Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity, and now Cassini data. The DSN is the vital communications pathway between Earth and our distant spacecraft.

After a museum visit and lunch in the Goldstone cafeteria, we were off to visit several of the antennae, named after their initial targets: 36 – meter Echo, now used for GAVRT, Twin 34 – meter Gemini antennae, now supporting SOHO, 34 – meter Uranus, initially used for Voyager, and now a workhorse supporting many current missions. Then we were off to Venus, a 34 – meter beam waveguide antenna first used for successful radar detection of the planet Venus, and finally to DSS – 14 Mars, the 70 – meter antenna first used in the 1960’s to track Mariner missions to Mars. It was enlarged in the 1970’s to support the Voyager 2 mission to Uranus and Neptune.

On the drive from Venus to Mars we passed the Apollo site. The 26 – meter Apollo antenna supported the Apollo astronaut missions to the moon. This site also houses three 34 – meter beam waveguide antennas, which can be used individually or arrayed with another 34 – meter antenna to obtain higher performance.

Goldstone began operating in 1958 to track the Pioneer probes that returned data about radiation around the moon. Goldstone continues to play a vital role in communication with distant spacecraft nearly 50 years later, supporting missions in the 21st century. Worth a detour? Absolutely!

Links:

Jane and Mojo’s Canberra DSN image collection http://www.whiteoaks.com/Australia2000/pg32.html
Jane's Goldstone DSN images http://www.whiteoaks.com/jane/2007Goldstone
Goldstone Tours (public tours) http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn/features/goldstonetours.html
DSN website http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn/
GAVRT: http://www.lewiscenter.org/gavrt/