National Aeronautics and Space

Administration
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology

Next Generation DSN

A Vision for the

Next Generation
Deep Space Network
Bob Preston
Chief Scientist
Interplanetary Network Directorate, JPL

Les Deutsch
Architecture and Strategic Planning
Interplanetary Network Directorate, JPL

QuickTime and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.

Barry Geldzahler
Program Executive, Deep Space Network
Science Mission Directorate, NASA

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National Aeronautics and Space

Administration
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology

Next Generation DSN

The Challenge for Deep Space Communications

Over the next 30 years deep space communication will have to
accommodate orders-of-magnitude increase in data to and from
spacecraft and at least a doubling of the number of supported
spacecraft

The present DSN architecture is not extensible to meet future needs in

a reliable and cost effective manner

NASA must develop a new strategy for deep space communications

that meets the forthcoming dramatic increase in mission needs

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National Aeronautics and Space

Administration
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology

Next Generation DSN

What is the Present Deep Space Network?

Three major tracking sites around the globe, with 16 large antennas,
provide continuous communication and navigation support for the worlds
deep space missions
Currently services ~ 35 spacecraft both for NASA and foreign agencies
Includes missions devoted to planetary, heliophysics, and astrophysical
sciences as well as to technology demonstration
Spigot for science data from most spacecraft instruments exploring the
solar system, as well as a critical element of radio science instruments
A $2B infrastructure that has been critical to the support of 10s of $B of
NASA spacecraft engaged in scientific exploration over the last few decades

Goldstone

Canberra
Madrid

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National Aeronautics and Space

Administration
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology

Next Generation DSN

Why Does NASA Need a Next Generation DSN?

Many of the current DSN assets are obsolete or well beyond the end of their
design lifetimes
The largest antennas (70m diameter) are more than 40 years old and are not suitable for
use at Ka-band where wider bandwidths allow for the higher data rates required for
future missions
Current DSN is not sufficiently resilient or redundant to handle future mission demands

Future US deep space missions will require much more performance than
the current system can provide
Require ~ factor of 10 or more bits returned from spacecraft each decade
Require ~ factor of 10 or more bits sent to spacecraft each decade
Require more precise spacecraft navigation for entry/descent/landing and outer planet
encounters
Require improvements needed to support human missions

NASA has neglected investment in the DSN, and other communications

infrastructure for more than a decade
Compared to 15 years ago, the number of DSN-tracked spacecraft has grown by 450%,
but the number of antennas has grown only by 30%

There is a need to reduce operations and maintenance costs beyond the

levels of the current system
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National Aeronautics and Space

Administration
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology

Next Generation DSN

NASAs Science Missions are Changing

MGS, Mars Odyssey, & MRO will obtain high resolution images of only about 1% of Mars
surface
Data rate is a constraint on the ability to understand the planet
Science and human exploration missions need remote sensing as now done for the Earth

Preliminary solar
system reconn. via
brief flybys.

Detailed Orbital
Remote Sensing.

In situ exploration
via short-lived
probes.

In situ exp. via longlived mobile human &

robotic elements.

Low-Earth-orbit solar
and astrophysical
observatories.

Observatories located
farther from Earth.
(e.g., Spitzer, JWST)

Single, large spacecraft

for solar &
astrophysics obs.
Evolution of the Deep Space Network

Constellations of small,
low-cost spacecraft.
(e.g., MMS, MagCon)

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National Aeronautics and Space

Administration
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology

Next Generation DSN

Doing Similar Remote Sensing at

Other Planets as We do Today at Earth
Cassini Communication
Capability

Direction of Increasing
Data Richness

Synthetic Aperture Radar

Data for Science

Multi-Spectral & Hyper-Spectral Imagers

DATA
RATES
(bits/s)

Planetary Images
1E+04

1E+05

1E+06

1E+07

1E+08

Video

Data for Public

Required Improvement
Direction of Increasing
Sense of Presence

HDTV
IMAX
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National Aeronautics and Space

Administration
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology

Next Generation DSN

The DSN and Outer Planets Missions

A capable DSN is especially critical to outer planet
missions since communication is much more difficult
compared to the inner solar system

Relative Difficulty
Place

Distance

Difficulty

Geo

4x104 km

Baseline

Moon

4x105 km

100

Mars

3x108 km

5.6x107

Jupiter 8x108 km

4.0x108

Pluto

5x109 km

1.6x1010

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National Aeronautics and Space

Administration
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology

Next Generation DSN

DSNs Future Mission Drivers

Projected Number of Downlinks
120
100

Links

80

Spacecraft

40
20

Missions

0
2005

Downlink Rate (Kbps)

Analysis shows that by 2030 DSN must be

ready to support:
1000X downlink performance increase
(likely more for certain missions)
2X number of spacecraft increase

60

1,000,000

2010

2015

2020

2025

2030

Projected Downlink Rate

500 MHz of Ka Bandwidth

100,000

Max Rate

10,000

Ave Rate

1,000
100
10
1
2005

2010

2015

2020

2025

2030

Projected Downlink Difficulty

1.E+07

(kbps x AU2)

Probable future DSN mission sets are

frequently analyzed
All NASA missions beyond
geosynchronous Earth orbit
Science and exploration missions

1.E+06
1.E+05

Max Link Difficulty

1.E+04
1.E+03

Ave Link Difficulty

1.E+02
1.E+01
1.E+00
2005

2010

2015

2020

2025

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National Aeronautics and Space

Administration
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology

1 Pbps

GEO

Next Generation DSN

DSN Performance Gap

Edge of
Jupiter
Mars
Pluto Solar System

Moon

1 Tbps

Cu
rre

(70 nt D
m
an S N S
ten
na ens
i
at
X-b tivity
an
d)

1 Gbps

1 Mbps
Mission Requirements out to 2030
1 Kbps

1 bps
10,000 km

100,000 km

1 Mkm

10 Mkm

100 Mkm

1 Bkm

10 Bkm

100 Bkm

1,000-fold increase is needed to support planetary missions

Adequate sensitivity already exists for all lunar and Earth libration point missions
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National Aeronautics and Space

Administration
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology

Next Generation DSN

Planning for the DSN Future

Planning process:
NASA and JPL have generated a roadmap for the DSN based on requirements
derived from analysis of probable future mission sets
This DSN roadmap is being integrated into an overall NASA Space Communications
Program Plan by the NASA Space Communications Architecture Working Group
(SCAWG)
The SCAWG made recommendations about the future of space communications to
the NASA Administrator (Griffin) and the NASA Strategic Management Council
The NASA Administrator declared that NASA has neglected the DSN and
communications infrastructure investment and asked that a plan be ready to deliver to
Congress in February 2007

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National Aeronautics and Space

Administration
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology

Next Generation DSN

A Plan for the DSN Future

Recommended key elements of future DSN:
Radio communication with large arrays of small antennas will be the
backbone of deep space communications (#2 recommendation of
SCAWG, after next generation TDRSS)

Would serve all missions, large and small, new and old
Technology is mature and low-risk
Costs will be recovered over time through reduction of DSN
operations and maintenance costs
Orbital data relays at the Moon, Mars, and perhaps other planets will
allow the highest possible communication volumes from spacecraft at
those bodies
Optical communication would allow the transfer of extremely high
data rates on trunk lines from Mars or the Moon to Earth, or for
special missions (but would require implementation of an extensive
reception infrastructure)
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National Aeronautics and Space

Administration
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology

Next Generation DSN

The Next Generation DSN: Arrays of Small Antennas

Arrays of small radio antennas will provide:
More resilience and redundancy:
Graceful degradation in performance in case of antenna
or receiver failures fewer single points of failure

Much greater data flow to and from spacecraft:

Meets the data rate requirements of most future NASA
missions and instruments

Easily scalable architecture when growth is

required
Significant growth in the number of spacecraft
that can be simultaneously tracked
Each with just the required aperture

Higher precision spacecraft navigation

Required for precision entry/descent/landing and for
outer planet exploration

Improved cost-effectiveness
Substantially reduces operations and maintenance
costs: Plug-and-play components with longer lifetimes

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National Aeronautics and Space

Administration
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology

Next Generation DSN

Arrays: What Has Already Been Accomplished

Radio astronomers have used arrays since the 1970s
DSN supported Voyagers Uranus and Neptune encounters with
arrays of antennas (including international radio telescopes)
DSN helped save Galileo through routine use of antenna arrays
(including Parkes)

DSN arrays enabled Galileo

to succeed after its HGA
failed to deploy

Mid 80s plan to expand DSN with 34m antennas rather than 70m
assumed arrays
DSN currently offers 34m arraying as a standard service (used
often by Cassini)

U.S.

Australia

Array breadboard task is underway as a technology

demonstration
Developing 3 antennas (6- and 12-m diameter) and components
that can be mass-produced for low cost
Demonstrating signal combining algorithms
6-m DSN Array
breadboard antenna
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National Aeronautics and Space

Administration
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology

Next Generation DSN

End-to-End RF Communication Performance

Future end-to-end communication performance will rely on more

than just improvements to ground facilities

Performance Improvement

Additional enhancements are under development

1000

High Power S/C Transmitter

100W

100

Advanced Coding & Compression

Factor of 5 over today

Ka-Band Deployment on all Assets

10

Flight/Ground
Enhancements

Factor of 4 enabled by Next Gen DSN

Next Gen DSN Antennas

Factor of 10 over todays 70m

Flight
Enhancements

Ground
Enhancements

Current DSN
Spacecraft: X-band, 10W, 1.5m ant; DSN: 70m ant

X 1,000 performance increase possible for most deep space missions

Some missions might achieve more up to 1,000,000
Via higher power transmitters, larger spacecraft antennas, or optical
communication

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National Aeronautics and Space

Administration
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology

Next Generation DSN

Example Benefits of Future DSN to NASA Missions

Flexibility of the
Array Architecture

Orders of magnitude increase in downlink data rates

Video instead of single images
Improved multi-spectral imaging
Increased temporal and/or spatial resolution
Increased wavelength and/or geographical coverage

Room to grow to support the human exploration era

Including intense robotic exploration of Mars

Single high performance user, or

Multiple users on sub-arrays

Orders of magnitude increase in up uplink data rates

Enables expected growth of software uploads and human
communication needs
Same instrument performance much farther from Earth
Direct-to-Earth transmission can enable new mission
concepts for probes, rovers, and balloons
Hemispherical planet coverage (e.g., for multiple probes,
longer communication periods)
Improved position/velocity measurements (e.g., for winds)
Improved mission parameters/cost
Higher link sensitivity could be used to lower spacecraft
power, mass, pointing accuracy requirements,
Improved data-rate from low-gain antennas during descent
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Equivalent Data Rate from Jupiter

1.E+08

1.E+04

1.E+02

1.E+00

1.E-02

1.E-04

1.E-06
1950

1.E+12

1.E+10

Mariner IV

Pioneer IV

1960
1970
1980
1990
2000

Voyager
MRO
Kepler

2010

Galileo

Mariner 10

2020

Optical Comm

10.5m Spacecraft Antenna (S/C)

Advanced Coding and Compression (G & S/C)

DSN Array - Phase 1 (G)

DSN Array - Phase 2 (G)
1kW Ka-Band Transmitter (S/C)

100W Ka-Band Transmitter (S/C)

Ka-Band Systems (G & S/C)

Improved Coding (15/1/6) (G & S/C)

Array: 70-m + 2 34-m (G)

70-m Antenna (G)

Video Data Compression (G & S/C)

Improved Antenna (G)

Interplexed, Improved Coding (G & S/C)
1.5-m S-/X-Band Antena (S/C)
X-Band Maser (G)
Concatenated Coding (7, 1/2) + R-S (G & S/C)
3.7-m X-/X-Band Antenna (S/C)
Array: 64-m + 1 34-m (G)
Reduced Microwave Noise (G)

Reduced Ant Surf Tolerances (G)

10-W S-Band TWT (S/C)

64-m Antenna (G)
Reduced Microwave Noise (G)
20-W S-Band TWT, Block Coding (G & S/C)

3-W, 1.2-m S-Band Antenna (S/C)

Reduced Transponder Noise (S/C)
Maser (G)

1.E+06

Baseline (First Deep Space mission)

National Aeronautics and Space

Administration
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology

Next Generation DSN

DSN: Looking Forward

Mariner 69

2030
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National Aeronautics and Space

Administration
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology

Todays DSN

Global coverage of Deep

Space
Current state of the art

Next Generation DSN

Planetary
Networks

High
performance
exploration
Increased
accessibility
Improved nav
and position
locations

DSN Array

NASA Space Networking

Optical
Communications
Modular and expandable
Low cost manufacturing and
operations
x40 performance

High bandwidth
communications
Low mass spacecraft
components
Beginning of technology
growth curve
Evolution of the Deep Space Network

High reliability
High Performance: x1000 by 2015
Cost effective
Planetary networks, seamless connectivity
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National Aeronautics and Space

Administration
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology

Next Generation DSN

Summary
NASA mission models indicate that orders-of-magnitude growth in network
capacity are required over the coming decades
To meet these future requirements a new end-to-end DSN architecture is
envisioned that includes antenna arrays, local networks at the Moon and Mars,
and eventually optical communications on some links
All subsequent NASA deep space missions would be orders-of-magnitude more
science-capable
The schedule for implementation of the next generation DSN will depend on NASA
budgetary and programmatic decisions, in addition to the pressure of future
mission requirements
The science community is free to express their opinion to NASA
Until the new DSN is in place NASA is committed to ensuring that the current DSN
can meet mission commitments

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