A newly constructed CSIRO-run deep space antenna in Western Australia will enable the European Space Agency (ESA) to contact and monitor space missions for the next 50 years. The 35-meter dish, which is named NNO-3, expands the ESA’s arsenal in Australia to four antennas, and will play a key role in the agency’s upcoming Vigil mission to monitor the Sun for potentially hazardous solar activity.
The CSIRO already operate NASA’s Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex, and ESA’s current complement of antennas at the New Norcia site in Western Australia, and the installation of the new antenna will mean Australia gets access to the data from missions like Vigil, which will keep Aussie scientists right at the front of space research.
The antenna itself is packed with the latest tech, according to the CSIRO’s station manager for the New Norcia site, Suzy Jackson, who told the AusSMC that the timing equipment is accurate down to the picosecond, meaning they can really accurately work out where every spacecraft is in space down to 1/1000th of a degree.
“I get to play with this gear every single day, we have cryogenic receivers on our 35-meter antenna that are sensitive enough to literally detect the signal from a mobile phone from Mars, and we have massive high-power amplifiers that can talk back,” she said.
This level of accuracy, along with the super reliable power systems with backup generators, are critical for missions like Vigil which will give almost in-real-time updates on the activity of the Sun, and allow scientists on earth to detect dangerous solar storms and provide early warning for critical infrastructure.
The Vigil mission manager, Giuseppe Mandorlo, told the AusSMC that although the power grids on earth are probably one of the better prepared systems, they are still vulnerable to the disruptions caused by solar storms and early warning is essential to keeping the power running.
“We would be looking at either shutting down systems or actually, in some cases, increasing power on the grid to sort of allow the grid to be stabilised.”
Mr Mandorlo added that recent space weather reports estimated "a cost impact of $2.4 trillion after five years due to a major solar event,” highlighting the high cost and long term impacts that the Vigil mission will aim to mitigate.
The NNO-3 antenna will now begin a phase of testing alongside the existing antennas at the New Norcia site, including its first observation which will be of the Euclid satellite which is mapping billions of galaxies in the search for dark energy and dark matter.
The construction of NNO-3 was made possible in part by a federal government grant of $4 million through the Australian Space Agency’s International Space Investment Initiative.
The inauguration of the new dish will happen on the 4th of October, coinciding with the International Astronautical Congress in Sydney.
You can see the AusSMC news briefing here.
This article originally appeared in Science Deadline, a weekly newsletter from the AusSMC. You are free to republish this story, in full, with appropriate credit.
Contact: Steven Mew
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Email: info@smc.org.au