Subject: Signals And System

Submitted By :- Submitted To :-
Dhinesh Kumar N B Mr. Omprakash Bhat
Electronic & {Dept. Of Electronic &
Communication Engg... Communication}
USN:- 1SU21EC004
Introduction:~
Communications are required and
critical to the success of space missions.
From the moment of launch, the only
connection between a spacecraft and
the Earth is the communications
system. This is known as space communication. It will be receiving, sending
and processing of information using space as a medium. To send the
information, electromagnetic wave is used as a carrier. This modulated signal
wave has the capability to propagate into space with the velocity same as that of
velocity of light. It enables the tracking of the spacecraft, and commanding the
spacecraft to perform any actions that it cannot perform automatically.
All deep-space missions defined as those operating at or beyond the orbit of the
Earth’s Moon require Deep Space communication. The Deep Space Network or
DSN is one of the largest and most sophisticated of such networks and
communications.

Deep Space Network:~

The deep space network (DSN) was introduced in the year of 1963 by Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) under the contract for US Army and then
transferred to NASA for deep space exploration. From that time till now, the
DSN technology has helped the scientist to investigate deeper into the space to
send the radio signals and know about some other facts about the life on Earth,
information about asteroids and the possibility of its collision with the Earth in
the future, etc ...
The DSN helps to keep track of spacecraft by transmitting the command signals
to it and receiving the critical information about different planets, galaxies and
their surface. It also monitors the health and safety of the spacecraft for
achieving the results. The numbers of other functions are telemetry, science, and
radio science with the help of which the scientists can study the behaviour of the
elements on the Earth, when they formed, how they evolved, and what are the
characteristics.
This approach helps them to compare the studies they have done in the past with
the research they did on another planet by sending the rovers, spacecraft.

Page 1
The telecommunications method used is more
complicated, but use the same fundamental principles of
radio transmission and reception, narrow frequencies,
data uplinks and downlinks and parabolic antennas. With
regards to long-distance calls, those that traverse
hundreds of millions of miles, the Deep Space Network
operated by NASA remains unmatched.
This network ranks as the most sensitive and largest scientific
telecommunication network system on the planet. How much is, it can hear a
“whisper” from a billion kilometres away. Therefore, excluding potential alien
intelligence, it qualifies as the most advanced in the universe. The DSN is an
international framework or array of massive radio antennae designed for the
sole purpose of supporting interplanetary missions by spacecraft and Earth
orbital missions.

DSN Communication system:~

At starting these DSN are using the radio frequency for the communication
purpose. DSN currently consists of three Deep Space Communications
Complex placed approximately 120 degrees apart around the Earth. They are,
♣ The Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex outside Barstow,
California. For details of Goldstone's contribution to the early days of
space communication.
♣ The Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex, 60 kilometres
(37 mi) west of Madrid, Spain
♣ The Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex in the Australian
Capital Territory, 40 kilometres (25 mi) southwest of Canberra, Australia
near the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve.
Each facility is situated in semi-mountainous, bowl-shaped terrain which help
shield against radio frequency interference. This 120º of placing the ground
station allow us to monitor the space continuously. The DSN are placed away
from the equator to cover near
space work and also to cover wider
range of longitude. Coverage of
DSN Stations overlap beyond
30,000km (18.000 miles),
providing 24 hours of daily view.

Page 2
Deep Space Communication
Complex:~
Each complex consists of require huge
antennas, ultrasensitive receiving and
processing systems which include, as a
minimum, the following dish antennas:
♣ One 34-meter (111-foot) diameter
High Efficiency antenna (HEF) or
one 34-meter Beam Waveguide antenna (BWG) or both of them.
♣ One 70-meter (230-foot) antenna
♣ One 26-meter (85-foot) antenna. This is available only at Goldstone
The parabolic shapes show the best performance as they can collect a broad
range of signals and transmit a greater range of signals with the least
degradation of performance. Surface of the 70-meter reflector must remain
accurate within a fraction of the signal wavelength, meaning that the precision
across the surface has to be maintained within 1 cm (0.4 in.)

Primary Parabolic Reflector Secondary Hyperbolic

Reflector

Transmitter
/Receiver
Feed Cone
and Pre-
Amplifier
Unit

Page 3
The 34-m BWG Stations:~
The 34-meter diameter BWG (beam waveguide) and HSB (high angular
tracking speed beam waveguide) antennas are the latest generation of antennas
built for use in the DSN. The newest of these, Deep Space Station 35 (DSS-35)
at Canberra, is on schedule to be operational in October 2014. This section
describes, as representative of the 34-m stations, the system functions at Deep
Space Station 25 (DSS-25), a 34-m BWG station currently in use at Goldstone.
In general, each antenna has one LNA for each supported frequency band.
However, stations that can support simultaneous right circular polarization
(RCP) and left circular polarization (LCP) in the same band have an LNA for
each. In addition, the stations that support Ka-Band contain an additional LNA
to enable monopulse tracking when using RCP polarization. Each antenna also
has at least one transmitter. Antennas with more than one transmitter can
operate only one of them at a time. DSS 25 is an exception and has a Ka-band
transmitter that can be operated at the same time as its X-band transmitter.
In Fig. 2-1, the radio frequency (RF) output from the 20-kW X-band transmitter
goes through the X-band diplexer, then through an orthomode junction and
polarizer to the X-band feed.

Page 4
The X-band uplink continues to the sub-reflector via an X-band/Ka-band
dichroic plate, if simultaneous Ka-band is required. From the sub-reflector, the
X-band uplink is focused to the 34-m main reflector, which is oriented in the
direction of the spacecraft during the active track.
The X-band downlink signal from the spacecraft is collected by the 34-m main
reflector. Then it is focused by the sub-reflector to the X-band feed (again via
the X-band/Ka-band dichroic when there is also a Ka-band downlink from the
spacecraft). The orthomode junction is the part of the antenna feed that
combines or separates left-circularly polarized and right-circularly polarized
(LCP and RCP) signals. From the feed the X-band RF signal goes to the X-band
maser preamplifier. When simultaneous X-Band uplink and downlink of the
same polarization are required at stations with waveguide diplexers, reception
must be through the diplexer, and the noise will be increased over that of the
non-diplexed path.
After low-noise amplification, the downlink is frequency down-converted to a
300-megahertz (MHz) intermediate frequency (IF) for input to the Block V
Receiver (BVR). All DSN antennas employ a receiver architecture where one or
both circular polarizations of the received spectrum are amplified by a low-
noise amplifier (LNA) and down converted to IF.
The antennas are designed to receive extremely weak signals and can be
overloaded by signals in excess of –90 dBm. Antennas supporting 26 gigahertz
(GHz) have a special low-gain mode that permits operation up to –50 dBm with
degraded G/T.
The Ka-band downlink also is collected by the 34-m main reflector and focused
by the sub-reflector. It passes through the dichroic plate to separate it from the
X-band downlink signal path, on its way to the Ka-band feed. DSS-25 is
equipped for RCP or LCP at Ka-band. The Ka-band preamplifier is a high-
electron-mobility transistor (HEMT). Like the X-band downlink, after low-
noise pre-amplification, Ka-band downlink is frequency down-converted for
input to the BVR.

Page 5
The 70-m (DSS-14 and DSS-43) Stations:~
Figure 2-2 shows the antenna, microwave and transmitter sections of the 70m
stations, DSS-14 and DSS-43. The 20-kW X-band transmitter output goes
through a polarizer and a diplexing junction to the X-band feed. From there, it
passes through an S-band/X-band dichroic reflector on its way to the sub-
reflector and the main 70m reflector that sends the uplink on its way to the
spacecraft.
The S-band uplink carrier, modulated with a command subcarrier when
required, can be transmitted by a 20kW transmitter or (at DSS-43 only) a
400kW transmitter. The transmitter output goes through an S-band diplexer,
orthomode junction and polarizer to the S-band feed. From there, as the block
diagram shows, the S-band uplink path is via three smaller reflectors and the
70m reflector before radiation to the spacecraft.

Page 6
The X-band downlink from the main reflector is focused by the sub-reflector
and passes through the dichroic reflector to separate it from the S-band signal
path. From the diplexing junction, the X-band downlink goes to a polarizer to
select (match) the left circular or right circular polarization of the downlink
transmitted from the spacecraft. The X-band downlink from the X-band HEMT
preamplifier is frequency-down converted for input to the BVR.
From the 70-m reflector, the S-band downlink is directed by the sub-reflector to
the S/X dichroic reflector. A dichroic surface is reflective at one frequency band
and transparent at another, thus allowing the S-band frequencies to be separated
from X-band frequencies for individual processing.
The dichroic reflects the S-band downlink to the path shown by the thick line in
the block diagram to the S-band feed. Reversing the path taken by the uplink,
the downlink is directed by the diplexer to an S-band maser preamplifier, and its
frequency is down-converted for input to the block V receiver (BVR).

Internal structure of DSN Complex:~

Page 7
Reason for DSN are created more sensitive:~
To reduce costs and save onboard weight and power of the spacecraft the
communications equipment made with light weight and work at low power.
Whereas signals generated by the spacecraft will be at very low power, usually
about 20 watts, approximately the same amount required to light a refrigerator
light bulb.
As the signal travels, it continues to lose energy as it loses its focus; by the time
it reaches Earth, the signal arriving at the antennas can be as weak as a billionth
of a billionth of a watt. To hear those kind of signals DSN should be sensitive
enough to make a communication with them.
The DSN amplifies the signals which is received from the space. Not only the
signal, the different types of noises like radio static emitted by every object in
the universe is amplified too. So, astronomers decode the signal from noise.
Another one is equipment itself producing the noise in from of infrared
radiation, heat.
Thus, the amplifiers are designed to work at really cool temperature within few
degrees above the absolute zero. Now, heat signal doesn’t overwhelmed
sensors. Another way the DSN can amplify communication is by using the
multiple antennas to collect a signal from the same source. This is called
arraying and it works really well for the radio wave because the wavelength is
so long. So, don’t worry as much about things like interference from the
atmosphere.

Application:~
♣ Telemetry refers to data that shows the health and status of the
spacecraft along with other key information such as speed, trajectory,
and orbit.
♣ The command system has the responsibility of communicating required
changes from the ground to the spacecraft such as corrective actions.
The telemetry system, on the other hand, handles all the data
communication from the space probe or craft to the ground station.
♣ Tracking the spacecraft
♣ To study about Radio Science refers to a technique used to find out a
planet or moon's gravitational field by observing the shift in Doppler,
etc.…
♣ To do various Science experiment

Page 8
Limitation:~
♣ Data transfer rate of the communication signal is one of the primary
concerns observed during this time, this varies from 160 bps to 5.2 Mbps.
The future missions explicitly specify the minimum requirement to be
from 1 Mbps to 100 Mbps
♣ Propagation Delay of data in space from earth to spacecraft
♣ Priority Communication Traffic
♣ The money is the biggest problem in any technology, without money,
nothing can happen. For instance, the 70-meter diameter DSN antenna
cost $4770 per hour, and 34-meter antenna costs $954 per hour, so not all
the space agencies afford such a significant amount
♣ The failure of one component can put the entire DNS out of commission
for several months. This issue is compounded by the fact that many of the
components have aged and might get older with the time, so there is need
of an upgrade to newer technology or replacement it with the new ones.
The replacement will require extensive funding which may not be easily
available.

Deep Space Communication Evolution:~

Page 9
Current Status of DSN complex:~

Page 10