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A new big antenna for the Deep Space Network, which provides radio communications for spacecraft exploring the solar system, is being built in Spain reports NASA. The network has clusters of skyward-facing dish antennas at sites in California, Spain and Australia which are used to send and receive information from spacecraft at distances up to twice that of Pluto. NASA needs the new antenna in Spain to deal with communications in late 2003 when three rovers and two orbiters from the United States, Europe and Japan will arrive at Mars, two other spacecraft will encounter comets, and a third comet mission will launch. This is in addition to the other missions that already exist.
The new antenna in Spain will span 34 meters (112 feet) in diameter and is part of the improvements NASA is making to the Deep Space Network's capabilities. It will become the network's sixth 34-meter antenna. Three are at the network's Goldstone station near Barstow, Calif. The stations near Madrid and near Canberra, Australia, each have one already in operation. Each of the three stations also has a 70-meter (230 foot) antenna and several smaller ones. The stations take turns linking with various spacecraft as Earth's rotation puts the target spacecraft in view of each station in turn.
The Deep Space Networks radio antennas are also sometimes used for radar observations of Near Earth Asteroids. Although radar has a limited range and thus cannot be used to search for NEOs it can provide the most accurate information on the orbit, size and shape of known asteroids. Radar observations were used, for example, to refine the orbit of asteroid 1950 DA which has a 1 in 300 chance of colliding with the Earth in 2880.
More info: Information from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laborator
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