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 Madrid

Canberra
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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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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. In situ exploration via short-lived probes. Low-Earth-orbit solar and astrophysical observatories. Single, large spacecraft for solar & astrophysics obs.
Evolution of the Deep Space Network

Detailed Orbital Remote Sensing. In situ exp. via longlived mobile human & robotic elements. Observatories located farther from Earth. (e.g., Spitzer, JWST) Constellations of small, low-cost spacecraft. (e.g., MMS, MagCon)

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Doing Similar Remote Sensing at Other Planets as We do Today at Earth

Cassini Communication Capability
Synthetic Aperture Radar

Next Generation DSN

Direction of Increasing Data Richness

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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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 Geo Moon Mars Distance 4x104 km 4x105 km 3x108 km Difficulty Baseline 100 5.6x107 4.0x108 1.6x1010

Jupiter 8x108 km Pluto 5x109 km

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Next Generation DSN

DSNs Future Mission Drivers

Projected Number of Downlinks
120 100 80

Links Spacecraft Missions

2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 2030

Downlink Rate (Kbps)

Probable future DSN mission sets are frequently analyzed All NASA missions beyond geosynchronous Earth orbit Science and exploration missions 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 40 20 0

1,000,000 100,000 10,000 1,000 100 10 1

Projected Downlink Rate

500 MHz of Ka Bandwidth

Max Rate Ave Rate

2005
1.E+07

2010

2015

2020

2025

2030

Projected Downlink Difficulty

(kbps x AU2)
1.E+06 1.E+05 1.E+04 1.E+03 1.E+02 1.E+01 1.E+00 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025
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Max Link Difficulty

Ave Link Difficulty

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Next Generation DSN

DSN Performance Gap

Moon Edge of Jupiter Mars Pluto Solar System

1 Pbps

GEO

1 Tbps

Cu rre
1 Gbps

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

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) 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) 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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DSN arrays enabled Galileo to succeed after its HGA failed to deploy

Australia

U.S.

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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
Additional enhancements are under development
Performance Improvement

1000

High Power S/C Transmitter

100W

Flight Enhancements Flight/Ground Enhancements Ground Enhancements

100

Advanced Coding & Compression Ka-Band Deployment on all Assets

Factor of 5 over today Factor of 4 enabled by Next Gen DSN

10

Next Gen DSN Antennas

Factor of 10 over todays 70m

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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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 BP/LD/BG - 15 and landing or spacecraft emergencies
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Equivalent Data Rate from Jupiter

1.E+00 1.E+02 1.E+04 1.E+06 1.E+08 1.E+10 1.E+12 1.E-04
Pioneer IV

1.E-02

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology

1.E-06 1950
Baseline (First Deep Space mission)

1960
3-W, 1.2-m S-Band Antenna (S/C) Reduced Transponder Noise (S/C) Maser (G)
Mariner IV

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)
Mariner 69

1970
Reduced Ant Surf Tolerances (G)

Mariner 10

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) Video Data Compression (G & S/C) 70-m Antenna (G) Array: 70-m + 2 34-m (G) Improved Coding (15/1/6) (G & S/C)

Next Generation DSN

DSN: Looking Forward

1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2030

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Voyager Galileo

MRO

Ka-Band Systems (G & S/C)

Kepler

100W Ka-Band Transmitter (S/C) DSN Array - Phase 1 (G) DSN Array - Phase 2 (G) 1kW Ka-Band Transmitter (S/C)

Advanced Coding and Compression (G & S/C) 10.5m Spacecraft Antenna (S/C)

Optical Comm

Todays DSN

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology

Next Generation DSN

Planetary Networks

High performance exploration Increased accessibility Improved nav and position locations

Global coverage of Deep Space Current state of the art

DSN Array

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

NASA Space Networking

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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