Busy Signals for Deep Space Experiments

lionchild writes "Just when you hated getting those 'Network Busy' signals on your Cell Phones..imagine what it's like to deal with communications in deep space after all these years of putting satellites and probes out there into the space lanes. Check the article out on space.com " The saddest part is the poor state that the deep space network of dishes is in, with some of the 70 meter antennae approaching their fifth decade with no repair funds on the horizon.

Comments

The DSN has options....

[mbone]

The Deep Space Network (DSN) works well in a crisis mode, or when a spacecraft is doing something spectacular. It's not so good at the mundane day to day.

I used to work there, and then I worked for its "competition" in the US government. The DSN does a lot of non-criticial stuff that could be done cheaper elsewhere, either by other parts of the US government, or abroad, or by private industry. It has always been unwilling to off-load any of these routine tasks, even if the charge would be a fraction of what it costs the DSN to do it.

So I am not entirely sympathetic, at least until the DSN restructures and reinvents itself.

space shuttle

[BlueboyX]

The space shuttle is well armored. Yet when the thing was origionally designed, nobody knew how common high velocity (but tiny) rocks would be up there. It turned out that the shuttle had insufficient armor to deal with micrometeorites for very long. That is why you see clips of the shuttle 'flying backwards' while in orbit. There is more armor on that side...

Re:Pay for decommissioning up front

[UPSBrian]

To whom is the fee to be paid? Since there doesn't seem to be an organization with the available means/authority for decommissioning I suggest the fee be remitted to myself.

I think a more plausible less big-brotherly approach would be an international agreement where all parties would design their spacecraft to burn up/leave orbit/whatever. Part of it could be technology sharing where the more developed space programs share the how's and whatnots involved with ensuring a controlled re-entry that won't squish anyone.

Light buckets

[foniksonik]

"Laser light buckets could allow faster data rates than the biggest radio antennae on Earth, Miller said, but it does have its drawbacks.

"The concept looks very promising from a cost standpoint...but it can't get through clouds at all," he said, adding that to be effective, a number of ground sites would be needed to account for bad weather. "And it would all have to be developed from scratch, but it's possible that sometime in the next decade we could be using optical instead of radio frequencies."

"

"but it can't get through clouds at all"

Why can't we just use satellites to receive the 'optical' data and retransmit via radio or whatever the last 'mile' kinda like a DSL for deep space transmissions...