Probably not the correct forum area but I wanted to start a tracking station topic

Some Tracking stations related weblinks:

http://www.bfec.us/bfectxt.htm

http://www.insa.org/gallery/oc/historicas/Fresnedillas/

http://www.honeysucklecreek.net/other_stations/

Don’t forget:

http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn/

And the virtual tour on the 70-meter antenna in Spain ( which I took for real in 2006 )
http://www.mdscc.org/html/visita.html

Here's one more view of the Spanish Deep Space Network complex : Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex

This is a nice place to start ... http://www.nro.nao.ac.jp/~kotaro/RTs/rts.html

With regard to tracking stations, here are the major deep-space systems.

The first interplanetary command and telemetry system was built in the Crimea in 1959-1960 to support the 1M and Venera-1 missions. It consisted of several ADU-1000 antennas, forming the Pluto system. It was later augmented by a number of 32-meter antennas of the Saturn system.

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The American Deep-Space Network was set up to support the 1964 Mariner Mars mission. Three 64-meter antennas were eventually situated around the Earth for full-time coverage. The antennas were later upgraded to 70 meters. They were at Canberra, Goldstone, and Madrid:

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The corresponding Soviet system consisted of two 70-meter antennas of the Quantum system, built to support Venera-11 and subsequent missions. One was in Evpatoria, Crimea and one in Ussuriysk, Siberia.

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At the 50th birthday of spaceflight... What's the future for the world's largest radio dish?
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Oct07/...bo.bill.lg.html

Just read toady on AW&ST that ESA is building a 64m dish antena in Sardinia. Anybody aware of this and where exactely?

It might be a radio astronomy dish of some kind. But there is no desire within ESA for a tracking dish of that size to be put in Sardinia. To complete our coverage, ESA needs to augment the antennas in Spain and Australia with something in Chile (probably). And in the size range of those two dishes, of around 35 meters. So there are no ESTRACK dishes going into Sardinia.

Our antennas are at: http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Operations/SEM...1.html#subhead1

Sorry, I made a not enough acurate quote.
Here is what it's written on page 26 of the Oct 1st issue :
"Giovanni Bignami, head of the Italian Space Agency ASI, says Italy plans to propose [...] and a new 64-meter ground antena in Sardinia to beef up ESA's deep-space network [....] The antena, which ASI partly owns, is under construction."

So, it's abit contradictory to what you write, CNDWRLD. Any comment ?

From what you wrote, it says that it is to be proposed, and that it is also currently under construction.

But putting that aside, a dish on Sardinia would overlap in coverage with the new dish that was finished in last year in Spain, at Cebreros. While doing nothing to plug the hole they have in the Americas. And at 64 meters, would be significantly bigger than the two 35 meter antennas that currently make up the ESA deep space network. A 64 meter dish is hugely expensive, and would do nothing to improve the system coverage.

I checked with the operations guys in Darmstadt, where ESA does its spacecraft operations, and they had never heard of such an antenna in Sardinia.

I think this antenna falls into the same category as the Italian Space Agency announcing that they were going to fund an independent mission to the Moon.

Thanks CNDWRLD, very interesting indeed to have a "in house" person able to check what AW&ST write.
They actualy also talked about ASI mission to the Moon (a relay orbiter).
Thanks for the info even if I'd prefered you were wrong

Perhaps the Iraqi Minister of Information got a new job for the Italian Space Agency.

You know, in a perfect world where UMSF had lots & lots of money, it would make perfect sense to have tracking stations widely separated in latitude but fairly close in longitude. This redundancy would not only minimize the impact of equipment failures but also offer considerable immunity from local weather effects...

Careful what you say now, or as soon as the balloon is finished Doug will be building one on the roof of his shed.

...maybe not a bad thing. I can see some great contracting opportunities there, lucrative enough to let him quit his day job & get on with becoming a famous space educator...

Only thing is that I'm not sure that the roof of HQ UMSF can handle a 70m steerable dish.

Okay, somebody here HAS to Photoshop that image together.

--Emily

I can safely confirm that. Also - the RF noise might get in the way of testing the APRS FM GP tracker for the balloon

Jodrell Bank saved ... now we still have to find a solution to keep Arecibo running

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/s...icle4297239.ece

Good news

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?rele...mp;auid=5984415

(This thread seemed like the right place to put it, even though it's a bit old...or perhaps the admins prefer a new thread every time? Move at will.)

edit - only now saw Emily's post as well:
http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002360/

NAhh - seems the right thread - while we're at it, here's my 'groundstation' for listening to the balloon payloads
http://twitpic.com/14cl0k

As folks here know, I'm at the Canberra DSN.
It is very good news for us to be the first Complex to get these vital antenna upgrades.

Lots of fanfare for the groundbreaking ceremony with VIPs from NASA and JPL here for the event.
A great day for us and the Network.
Click to view attachment

Our guests, including the new US Ambassador, Jeffrey Bleich (4th from right) broke ground on the site for antenna Deep Space Station 35 and you can see Deep Space Station 45 in the background.

For those observant readers, the two gentlemen on the right are (second from right) William Gerstenmaier, Associate Administrator for Space Operations (he's the guy incharge of all of NASA's communications from ground to space including shuttle, ISS, earth-obs and the DSN) and (far right) Dr Charles Elachi, Director of JPL. Great to have them all here with us.

BTW - Great article Emily.

Cool beans, Astro0, and congratulations!

(That area looks amazingly like the near-coastal area of central California, BTW, right down to the rolling hills & low trees.)

It's amazing how much it looks like Goldstone --- with the exception that things can actually grow Canberra.

Yes - but does Canberra have a steel Loch Ness Monster sticking out of a dry lake bed?

Awsome news for an underfunded and vital asset!

This is great great news!
BTW, which antena shows in your avatar?

It also looks remarkably similar to my memories of Hartebeeshoek in South Africa which was one of the early DSN locations. I suppose it's not all that surprising that the locations end up being physically similar because of the importance of local climate in selecting a DSN location but it's an interesting observation. No surprise that we don't have any here in Ireland though, it would be shut down because of weather 75% of the time.

I'm delighted by the news - the lack of investment in the DSN has been a major concern for a long time and it is particularly good news that this overhaul starts with Canberra. Hopefully this will be followed up with additional projects at the other DSN stations in due course too.

Climber: which antena shows in your avatar?

That's Deep Space Station 43, 70-metre antenna - due for retirement in the mid-late 2020s.

Thanks Astro. Could you also tell us which one "plays" in the movie "The Dish" (which I saw 2 months ago and realy enjoyed)

Doug has a point Astro0, especially if Canberra aspires to be more like Goldstone. Is it too late to get the contractor to include one of these in the bid?

The federal parliament house?

Dan, Goldstone aspires to more like Canberra We have the best data return record in the Network.

Climber, The antenna in the movie 'The Dish' was the Parkes Radio Telescope which is about 300kms northwest of Canberra.
The movie got it wrong of course, Parkes didn't get those first images. The 26metre (85 foot) dish at the Honeysuckle Creek station was responsible for receiving and relaying those first steps to the world. Parkes came in later.

Daniel, we have one inside Parliament House plus we have kangaroos!