17/01/2025
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A capability enhance by nearly 80%! In late July 2024, the Malargüe deep-space communication station accomplished an necessary improve of its antenna feed that can permit missions to ship rather more knowledge again to Earth.
With extra deep-space missions, extra worldwide requests, new and extra intense knowledge streams, the demand for deep-space floor stations has by no means been larger. But the supply is reaching almost full capability. To offer a breath of air to the three deep-space antennas in its international floor station community (Estrack), the European Area Company began an enormous improve of its stations, together with using novel cryogenic know-how.
In late July, the programme accomplished the cryogenic works on its Argentina-based Malargüe antenna, thus permitting the station to obtain as much as 80% extra science knowledge from its more and more advanced science missions, with a lift of as much as 60% for deep-space missions like Juice and BepiColombo.
The completion of the improve will alleviate operational capability calls for for ESA missions within the coming years, whereas additionally offering new capabilities for future missions.
How does it work? When receiving a sign and decoding it, antennas will be affected by background interference – or thermal noise – that limits their sensitivity and knowledge switch charge. One method to scale back this noise is to cryo-cool the hyperlink connecting the bodily antenna to the station’s digital sign transmitter and receiver – additionally referred to as the ‘antenna feed’.
“Rising the signal-to-noise ratio is vital when designing, upgrading and working antennas”, explains Stéphane Halté, ESA floor station venture supervisor.
“At a temperature of 10 Kelvin (-263°C) as an alternative of room temperature, we will scale back the noise to a minimal and enhance the antenna’s capability by between 60 and 80%”.
The brand new cryocooled feeds incorporate a brand new technology of ultra-low noise cryogenic amplifiers (LNA) developed with college companions equivalent to ETH Zurich (Switzerland) and Chalmers (Sweden). These LNAs are actually commercialised via spin-off corporations (LNF and Diramics).
The identical know-how is used at the moment for the event of quantum computer systems. That is an instance the place ESA know-how improvement can assist the general scientific group and assist the competitiveness of European corporations.
The Ka band cryocooled feed improvement has been funded via the ESA Expertise Improvement Component program and the primary prototype was manufactured and examined by Callisto Space (France). The operational models have been manufactured by Callisto and the mixing has been carried out in ESA’s Deep Area stations by the Canadian firm Calian.
Malargüe is the second antenna to have been upgraded with cryocooled feeds. It follows the trail of Cerebros in 2023. This cryogenic know-how is now a normal for ESA floor stations and the brand new antennas, just like the New Norcia 3 one, will characteristic it.
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