Deep Space Network: The Next 50 Years

Dr. Les Deutsch, Dr. Steve Townes

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

Phil Liebrecht, Pete Vrotsos, Dr. Don Cornwell

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

2016 All rights reserved

FISO Telecon 8-10-2016

The Deep Space Network

NASAs Connection to the Moon, Planets, & Beyond
Captures all information from our
spacecraft
Most sensitive receivers

Sends all instructions to them

Most powerful transmitters

Provides most of the

navigation
Most stable clocks and
best algorithms

Enabling more than

30 spacecraft in
flight today

DSN 70m
Antenna at
Goldstone,
California

NASAs Deep Space Network

DSN Current Configuration

DSS-24 DSS-25
34m (BWG-1) (BWG-2)

DSS-14
70m
DSS-15
34m High
Efficiency (HEF)

DSS-26
(BWG-3)

Signal Processing
Center SPC-10

DSS-54
34m (BWG-1)

DSS-63
70m
DSS-13
34m BWG &
HP Test Facility

Goldstone, CA, USA (near Fort Irwin, Barstow)

DSS-55
(BWG-2)
Signal Processing
Center SPC-60

DSS-65
34m High
Efficiency (HEF)

Madrid, Spain

Deep Space Network: The Next 50 Years

DSS-34
34m (BWG-1)

DSS-35
(BWG-2)
Signal Processing
Center SPC-40

DSS-43
70m
DSS-45
34m High
Efficiency (HEF)

Canberra, Australia

DSN Antennas in Madrid, Spain

Deep Space Network: The Next 50 Years

History of Downlink Difficulty

1st gravity assist to
visit multiple
planets: Mercury
and Venus

1010
108

Saturn orbiter

102
64-m
Antenna

1
10-2
10-4
10-6

1950

TV relayed 1st Mini

by satellite Computer

1960

Ka-band Array

Ka-Band

History to date:
Performance has improved by 1013 so far

1st Cell IBM PC

Phone Released

1970

Antenna Arraying

1st US
Spacecraft to fly
by the Moon

Improved
Spacecraft
Antenna

104

Discovery of
1,000th planet

Jupiter
orbiter

1st flyby of
Mars

Improved Coding

106

1st close-up
study of outer
planets

Maser

Equivalent Data Rate from Jupiter

1012

1980

Internet
made
Public

1990

Deep Space Network: The Next 50 Years

1st Hand-Held
GPS Receiver

2000

iPhone
Released

2010
5

Geocentric Angular Accuracy (nrad)

History of Navigational Angular Accuracy

106
Mariner 2 - Venus

105
Mariner 4 - Mars

104
Mariner 6,7 - Mars
Mariner 9 - Mars

1000

Viking - Mars
Voyager - Uranus

100

Magellan - Venus
Mars Observer
Mars Polar Lander

10

Mars Odyssey
MER/MRO Mars

1
Doppler

0.1

1960

Range

1970

VLBI

1980

Wideband
VLBI

1990

MSL - Mars

RSR/VSR

2000

2010

2020

Year
Deep Space Network: The Next 50 Years

Future Mission Data Rate Trends

Science Directions
Have visited all major objects in Solar System, Global continuous presence on Mars since 2004
Trends: Revisit for more intense study, Smaller spacecraft and constellations, Humans beyond LEO

What about after 2040?

Downlink Rate (kbps)

Mission modeling indicates

desire for ~10X data
improvement per decade
through 2040

Deep Space Network: The Next 50 Years

Long Term Communications Trend

We can look at long term trends for communications in general
Data gleaned from the Internet leads to ~0.34 orders of magnitude per decade
But we all know (feel?) the information age has changed this

Data Rate (kb/s)

106
105
HDTV
1080p

104
103
1st US Telephone
Exchange

102
10

NTSC
Television

Transatlantic
Telegraph

1
10-1
10-2
1840

1860

1880

1900

1920

1940

1960

Deep Space Network: The Next 50 Years

1980

2000

2020

Internet Communications Trend

Consider the trend in digital communications since the Internet was invented
This trend is ~1.3 orders of magnitude per decade
We believe spacecraft data needs will grow similarly so we will use 1.0 orders of
magnitude per decade

Data Rate (kb/s)

107
106
105
104
103
102
10
1
10-1
1950

1960

1970

1980

1990

Deep Space Network: The Next 50 Years

2000

2010

2020
9

Decade 1: 10X Improvement over Today

Remove bottlenecks on spacecraft and DSN
Universal Space Transponder (UST)
Common Platform DSN signal processor

Antenna arraying
DSN Aperture Enhancement Project emplacing additional
34m antennas
Provides backup for 70m capability as well as arraying
beyond 70m

Increase use of Ka-band over X-band

Factor of ~4 improvement

Deep Space Network: The Next 50 Years

10

Decade 2: 100X Improvement over Today

Dedicated Comm Relays
Extend the Internet to Mars
and enable public
engagement

Frontier Radio
IRIS future versions
Human and robotic users
???
100x todays data rates
from Mars up to 1 Gbps

Dedicated 12m
Stations
NASA + International
partnerships

Hybrid RF/Optical
Antenna
Potential reuse of
existing infrastructure,
in development today

Deep Space Network: The Next 50 Years

High Performance
Optical Terminal:
Will be demonstrated
on next NASA
Discovery mission

11

Decade 3: 1,000X Improvement over Today

Additional factor of 10 comes from
second generation optical
communication
Increased laser efficiency
~12% today to ~25% in this time frame

Dense wavelength division

multiplexing (DWDM)
Provide 10s-100sof downlink channels

MUX

MUX

Take advantage of new ASICs for coding

and modulation

Coherent communications
Possible factor of 3 to 5 improvement for
outer planet missions

Natural evolution of components to

reduce size, weight, and power

Deep Space Network: The Next 50 Years

12

Decade 4 & 5: 1,000,000X Improvement over Today

It is hard to predict exactly what technologies will pay off in this time frame for the remaining
factor of 100
However, history shows that the DSN has found radio improvements even after 50 years of
maturation
Some possibilities:
Further increases in transmitter efficiency
Better power sources for spacecraft, perhaps driven by human exploration far from Earth
Further improvements in DWDM technology
Antenna arraying on a massive scale
Disruptive technologies

Quantum communications

X-ray communications

Deep Space Network: The Next 50 Years

13

Relays and Networking

Some of these capabilities will not be practical on smaller spacecraft
Communications capability can be provided to these more capable relay spacecraft

Viking, Galileo Probe, Huygens, and Philae have taken advantage of this architecture

Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) is an enabling technology

Provides automation, data assurance, and data security

1010
010 0

1110
11000
1110

010101110 011
101110 010001
110

0110

01010

1110

010101110 011
101110 010001
110

Todays Mars Network

provides these services
to landers and rovers

0101

Deep Space Network: The Next 50 Years

0101

01111111
0

1
01010

01110
1110
01011

0111

01000101

NASA and our partners will

emplace planetary networks
to support areas of future
intense exploration

0100

01111111
0

1110
1110
0 0

14

DSN Data Rates: Next 50 Years

Taking all of this into account, here are some likely data rate capabilities for the future DSN

NASAs budget can not accommodate huge increases in DSN investment

We will achieve this through a combination of

Internal technology and capability development

Partnering with other parts of NASA, other US agencies, and other space agencies

Leveraging developments from academia, industry, and other appropriate sources

Deep Space Network: The Next 50 Years

15

The Global Community of DSN

DSS-24 DSS-25
34m (BWG-1) (BWG-2)

DSS-14
70m

DSS-26
(BWG-3)

Signal Processing
Center SPC-10

DSS-15
34m High
Efficiency (HEF)

DSS-63
70m
DSS-13
34m BWG &
HP Test Facility

Goldstone, CA, USA (near Fort Irwin, Barstow)

ESA ESTRACK 35m

Malarge

DSS-54
34m (BWG-1)

ESA ESTRACK 35m

Cebreros

DSS-55
(BWG-2)
Signal Processing
Center SPC-60

DSS-65
34m High
Efficiency (HEF)

DSS-35
(BWG-2)
Signal Processing
Center SPC-40

DSS-43
70m
DSS-45
34m High
Efficiency (HEF)

Madrid, Spain

DLR/GSOC 30m
Weilheim

DSS-34
34m (BWG-1)

ISRO 32m
Byalalu

Deep Space Network: The Next 50 Years

Canberra, Australia

JAXA Usuda 64m

Usuda

ESA ESTRACK 35m

New Norcia

16

Conclusion
The DSN has performed well for its first 50 years
Enabled much of humankinds exploration beyond geosynchronous orbit
Contributed to much of what we know about the our Solar Systems planets, comets,
asteroids as well as other star systems and galaxies

As we move into the next 50 years, the DSN and its global brethren will be
equally important
They will benefit from a host of new technologies
They will give back to society additional knowledge and technologies to benefit society

We look forward to presenting another paper in 50 years about the DSNs

first century and what we might expect in the next

NASAs Deep Space Network

17