There are several spacecraft in space. But how do NASA and other space agencies communicate with these spacecraft?
Deep Space Network
Space agencies communicate with spacecraft using the Deep Space Network or DSN. The DSN is a collection of big radio antennas situated in different parts of the world. NASA’S DSN locations are near Canberra, Australia: Madrid, Spain, and Goldstone, California, the US. These sites are almost evenly spaced out meaning even as Earth turns, they never lose contact with the spacecraft.
ISRO, the Indian space agency’s DSN is located at Byalalu, near Bengaluru, Karnataka.
Space agencies use these DSN antennas to send instructions to the spacecraft while the spacecraft send images and other information to these antennas. The antennas also tell us about the location of spacecraft and how they are doing.
Connecting with the DSN antenna
Since spacecraft cannot carry a lot of weight as they need to leave Earth’s orbit and stay in space, all spacecraft are fitted with small antennas that can beam weak radio signals back to Earth. The farther away a spacecraft the larger the DSN antenna required to detect its signal and communicate with it. The largest antennas at each of NASA’S DSN sites is 70 mt in diameter.
Post connecting with an antenna
Once a spacecraft communicates with the DSN antenna, centres at each DSN site receive information. In the case of NASA, these sites send the information to the Space Flight Operations Facility at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Here, photos and other data are processed and shared with scientists and the rest of the world.
Picture Credit : Google