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A highlight of the Roof of Australia tour in the Australian Alps, is a visit to the NASA Deep Space Network Tracking Station at Tidbinbilla and the remains of the Manned Spacecraft Network Tracking Station at Honeysuckle Creek, which played a critical role in the Apollo 11 First man on the Moon Mission.
December 2009
For thousands of years, humans have pondered the vastness of visible space. Is there life on Mars? What causes the rings of Saturn? What exists beyond our Solar System? When and how did the Universe begin?
While humans have explored and worked within the Earth-Moon environment, one of the most effective ways we can journey deep into the Solar System is using unmanned robotic spacecraft.
These missions of discovery include:
Pioneer –
The Pioneer series of spacecraft performed first-of-their-kind explorations of the Sun, Jupiter, Saturn and Venus. The different missions had little in common except that they all paved the way for later in-depth investigations. Pioneers 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 (1958-59) were early lunar attempts that failed to meet their objectives. Pioneer 5 (1960) provided the first maps of the interplanetary magnetic field. Pioneers 6, 7, 8 and 9 (1965-68) were the world's first solar monitoring network and provided warnings of increased solar activity which could affect Earth orbiting satellites and ground systems. The twins Pioneer 10 and 11 (1972-73) were the first spacecraft to visit Jupiter and Saturn, performing a wide variety of scientific observations and returning environmental data that were used during the design of the more sophisticated Voyager probes. The Pioneer Venus mission (1978) – Pioneer Venus Orbiter (Pioneer 12) and Pioneer Venus Multiprobe (Pioneer 13) – was the United States' first long-term mission to observe Venus and studied the structure and composition of the Venusian atmosphere. The 14-year mission also provided the first radar map of the planet's surface
Voyager –
The twin Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft continue exploring where nothing from Earth has flown before. 32 years after their 1977 launches, they are much farther away from Earth and the Sun than Pluto is and are now approaching the boundary region – the heliopause – where the Sun's dominance of the environment ends and interstellar space begins. Voyager 1, more than twice as distant as Pluto, is speeding outward at more than 17 kilometres per second (38,000 miles per hour). The primary mission was the exploration of Jupiter and Saturn. After making a string of discoveries there – such as active volcanoes on Jupiter's moon ‘Io’ and the intricacies of Saturn's rings – Voyager 2 went on to explore Uranus and Neptune, the only spacecraft to have visited those outer planets. The adventurers' current mission, the Voyager Interstellar Mission (VIM), will explore the outermost edge of the Sun's domain – and beyond. Both spacecraft are still sending scientific information about their surroundings back to Earth.
Skylab –
America's first experimental space station, Skylab’s objectives were twofold: to prove that humans could live and work in space for extended periods and to expand our knowledge of solar astronomy well beyond Earth-based observations. Skylab was launched in 1973. Three 3-man crews occupied the Skylab workshop for a total of 171 days, conducting nearly 300 scientific and technical experiments, including medical experiments on humans' adaptability to zero gravity, solar experiments and detailed Earth resources experiments. The empty Skylab spacecraft returned to Earth on July 11, 1979, scattering debris over the Indian Ocean and sparsely settled regions of Western Australia.
Viking –
Viking 1 (launched 1975) and Viking 2 (1976) missions to Mars each consisted of an orbiter and a lander, provided the first successful landing on Mars and the first space probes to obtain high resolution images of the Martian surface; characterize the structure and composition of the atmosphere and surface; and conduct on-the-spot biological tests for life on another planet.
Odyssey –
Odyssey has been orbiting Mars collecting a range of data since 2001. In addition to its own major scientific discoveries and continuing studies of the planet, the Odyssey mission has played important roles in supporting the missions of the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity and the Phoenix Mars Lander.
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter –
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was launched in 2005 specifically to search for evidence that water persisted on the surface of Mars for a long period of time, i.e. if it was around long enough to provide a habitat for life.
Mars Rovers –
NASA's twin robot geologists, the Mars Exploration Rovers – Spirit and Opportunity – landed on Mars in January 2004. The mission's primary scientific goal is to search for and characterize a wide range of rocks and soils that hold clues to past water activity (and potential for life) on Mars.
Phoenix –
Launched in August 2007, the Phoenix Mars Lander Mission is designed to continue surface-based study of the history of water and the potential for life and habitation on Mars, specifically in the Martian arctic's ice-rich soil.
Galileo –
Between launch in 1989 and 2003 when it impacted with Jupiter, Galileo carried science instruments and a atmospheric probe to Jupiter for a comprehensive study of the giant planet's atmosphere, moons and magnetosphere from orbit. Among its discoveries: an intense radiation belt above Jupiter's cloud tops, helium in about the same concentration as the sun, extensive and rapid resurfacing of the moon Io because of volcanism, and evidence for liquid water oceans under the moon Europa’s icy surface.
Ulysses –
Ulysses was the first mission to survey the space environment above and below the Sun’s poles. The data Ulysses returned over 17 years forever changed the way scientists view our Sun and its effects on the Solar System. The spacecraft's six-year orbits over the Sun's poles allowed scientists to observe our star from an unprecedented angle during both calm and turbulent periods. The observations redefined the way scientists think about space weather.
Genesis –
Launched in August 2001, the Genesis spacecraft was not a time machine; it could not go back to the time of formation of the solar system; but it did the next best thing. The spacecraft journeyed toward the Sun to a place outside the Earth's magnetic field where the Earth and Sun gravities are balanced. While in orbit, the spacecraft bathed in solar wind that is flung out from the Sun and uncovered its collectors to allow articles of solar wind to be embedded into ultra-pure silicon wafers. After return to Earth the solar wind samples were stored and catalogued under ultra-pure clean-room conditions and made available to the world’s scientific community for study.
Cassini –
After its initial four-year mission to explore the Saturn System between 2004 and 2008, the Cassini Equinox Mission continues to seek answers to questions about Saturn, its rings and its many moons. The mission is named for the Saturnian equinox when the sun will shine directly on the equator and begin to illuminate the planet’s northern hemisphere, complementing images from the south during the mission’s first four years.
Dawn –
During its nearly decade-long mission (2007-2015), the Dawn mission will study the asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres, celestial bodies believed to have formed early in the history of the solar system. The mission will characterize the early solar system and the processes that dominated its formation. Data returned from the Dawn spacecraft could provide opportunities for significant breakthroughs in our knowledge of how the solar system formed.
Hubble Space Telescope –
The Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990 and in permanent orbit around the Earth, has given scientists a view of the universe that far surpasses that of ground-based telescopes. Hubble's discoveries have transformed the way scientists look at the universe, turning astronomical conjectures into concrete certainties, clarifying previous theories, stimulating new ideas and shedding light on many of the great mysteries of astronomy, including the age of the universe, the identity of quasars, and the existence of dark energy.
This 2004 view from the Hubble Space Telescope is the deepest visible-light image of the cosmos ever seen. It shows nearly 10,000 galaxies, varying in age from 1 billion years to some that may have existed more than 13 billion years ago, when the universe was just 800 million years old.
None of these missions of discovery would be possible were it not for NASA's worldwide Deep Space Network (DSN), the essential radio communications link for NASA's interplanetary spacecraft as well as for some Earth-orbiting satellites. In addition to its communication functions, the DSN is used for radio science, radar observations, and radio astronomy.
The Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex (CDSCC) at Tidbinbilla forms one of three facilities worldwide that make up the DSN, along with sites at Goldstone in the Mojave Desert of California and Robledo near Madrid in Spain.
The CDSCC can be thought of as a kind of post office. The giant antennae allow transfer of data between spacecraft millions or sometimes billions of kilometres away and the mission controllers and research scientists on Earth.
Tidbinbilla has several antennae, each of which is designated a “Deep Space Station”.
Construction of the Tidbinbilla complex began in June 1963 with operations commencing in December 1964, in time to support the Mariner 4 spacecraft encounter with Mars. The centrepiece of the complex was a 26-metre antenna (Deep Space Station 42).
Two years later a manned spaceflight wing was added to the complex to assist with the Apollo missions to the Moon. During early 1969 construction started on a new 64-metre antenna (Deep Space Station 43) to handle the increasing amounts of data received and the rapidly expanding distances from earth that spacecraft were travelling.
In 1980 the 26-metre antenna was upgraded to become a 34-metre antenna and in 1987 the 64-metre antenna was upgraded to 70 metres, making it the largest steerable, parabolic antenna in the Southern Hemisphere.
After Honeysuckle Creek closed in December 1981, its 26-metre antenna was relocated to Tidbinbilla, renamed Deep Space Station 46 and used for spacecraft positioned close to the Earth. It is still in use today, although from 2009 it has ceased to play a role in regular scheduled operations.
In 1986 the construction of a new high efficiency 34-metre antenna (Deep Space Station 45) was completed in time for the Voyager 2 encounter with Uranus, where it was used in conjunction with the 70-metre antenna to provide even greater sensitivity for the reception of signals.
In the 1990s other antenna arrays were installed to support Space Shuttle missions and the Hubble Space Telescope as they passed over the Indian Ocean and Australia and to allow communication with space based interferometer elements such as the Halca satellite from Japan. Such satellites work together with ground stations to simulate a radio telescope much larger than the Earth, increasing sensitivity.
The most recent antenna to be built at the CDSCC was the 34-metre Beam Wave Guide antenna (Deep Space Station 34) in 1997.
To assist in the busy period in spaceflight at the end of 2003 and early 2004, the Complex incorporated the 64-metre dish at Parkes in central New South Wales, upgraded by NASA and operated by the CSIRO.
In 1998, after almost 35 years of service, a decision was made to decommission the original antenna, Deep Space Station 42, due to a number of contributing factors, including discontinuities in its performance, metal fatigue in the structure, and significant non-repairable wear in the drive mechanics. The antenna was removed in 2000.
The Complex has several prime functions, including:
Telemetry –
To acquire, process, decode and distribute deep space probe and Earth orbiter telemetry data – science and engineering information modulated on radio signals transmitted from the spacecraft.
Spacecraft Command –
To provide the means to control the activities of spacecraft using Command Data transmitted to a spacecraft by Mission Control via a DSN station.
Radiometric Tracking –
To provide communication between Earth based equipment and spacecraft, to make measurements that will allow the position and velocity (known as the state vector) of spacecraft to be determined.
Interferometry –
The accurate measurement of radio source positions, measurement of station locations, interstation time-and- frequency offsets and Earth orientation for studies of the Earth.
Radio Science –
Improves our knowledge of the solar system and the theory of general relativity through radio frequency experiments performed between spacecraft and the Deep Space Network.
Radio & Radar Astronomy –
The acquisition and extraction of information from signals emitted or reflected by natural celestial sources, including studies in the fields of astrophysics, Earth physics, planetary radar, gravitation and relativity.
Earth Dynamics –
GPS measurement of station locations and Earth orientation used for navigation and precise geodetic position measurements, recently applied to the study of earthquakes.
The Tidbinbilla Complex has a Visitor Centre which is open free of charge every day except Christmas Day and includes a cafe, gift shop, picnic areas and playground, as well as a display centre where you can take in magnificent views of the largest antenna complex in the southern hemisphere, see a piece of the Moon that's over 3.8 billion years old, check out the latest images from Mars, spacecraft models and real, mission-based space hardware.
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Sources:
Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex - www.cdscc.nasa.gov
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) - www.nasa.gov
Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) - www.hubblesite.org
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