|
 |
 advertisement
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Deep Space Network -- How Mars Orbiter Phones Home
By Glen Golightly
Houston Bureau Chief
posted: 06:35 am ET
23 September 1999
|
DSN links MCO and flight teamPASADENA,Calif. If mission controllers ever hear from Mars Climate Orbiter again,the much hoped for signal will come to them through the Deep Space Network.The networks dish antennas near Goldstone,California, Canberra, Australia, and Madrid, Spain are designed to providethe vital between the spacecraft and the flight team at the Jet PropulsionLaboratory. If all had gone well, the Canberrastation would have received a 15-watt, X-band signal from the orbiter andpassed it on to analysts at the JPL. Then the flight team would have usedthe network to continue lowering the orbiters orbit over the next fewmonths. Instead, mission controllers are nowusing the network to search the area around Mars, trying desperately topick up a signal from the orbiter.Clickhere to go to space.com's Mars page
|
|
|
|
|
