Enhanced Telecom

NASA Budget Request Includes New Projects in Mars Program
By Mark Whalen, JPL Universe, February 5, 1999

NASA's requested budget for fiscal year 2000 includes funding for two new program elements in the Mars Surveyor Program. As part of the agency's request for five new initiatives in its Space Science Enterprise, NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin on Feb. 1 announced funding for the development of the Mars Network, which would provide a comprehensive network for increased communications capability at Mars, as well as Mars Micromissions, to provide low-cost capability for delivering small payloads to Mars, including telecommunications elements of the Mars Network.

One of the first micromissions is slated to be the Mars Airplane, a fly-over mission scheduled for either 2003 or 2005. The vehicle would provide reconnaissance of sites of possible interest for future scientific exploration, including sample collection sites. "The responsibilities of the various NASA centers' work on the Mars Airplane are still to be determined," noted Glenn Cunningham, deputy director of the Mars Exploration Directorate at JPL.

Planning for a Mars communications infrastructure has been in the works at JPL since last fall, following the conclusion of a redesign of Mars architecture strategy led by JPL Space and Earth Sciences Program Director Dr. Charles Elachi. Five teams of experts from the international scientific community helped form the new strategy; a team led by Dr. Chad Edwards, manager of the Telecommunications and Mission Operations Directorate (TMOD) Program Office, studied systems for communications, navigation and information transfer to and from Mars. "Current technology allows only a few hours or less each day for communications between a Mars lander and Earth, which would prove constraining for the operations of sample-return missions planned for 2003 and 2005. The amount of data and imagery that could be brought back to Earth is also severely limited, Edwards added. Enhanced telecommunications capability at Mars could include the development of a constellation of low-cost microsatellites, the first of which would be developed for a 2003 mission. These would provide much more frequent contact and data return as well as navigation determination, much like the Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites do on Earth. The microsatellites would "piggyback" on a commercial Ariane V launch vehicle for a ride into Earth orbit before heading for Mars.

Satellite Dish in Place for 2003 Mars Mission
ABC, August, 2001

A satellite dish that will be used to communicate with a space mission to Mars in 2003 has been lifted into place at a ground station in Western Australia. The dish, belonging to the European Space Agency, has been lifted into position at New Norcia, 150 kilometres north of Perth. The agency says the dish is the largest of its kind in the state, weighing 100 tonnes and measuring 35 metres wide. It has been designed to be highly accurate, even in extreme conditions of 50 degree Celcius temperatures and 45 kilometre per hour winds.