Commercial alternatives to DSN?

[AS_501]

A bit off-topic, but maybe this is a good time to form commercial deep-space communications companies providing services similar to NASA's DSN.  Something will be needed for the many upcoming CLPS missions, and perhaps commercial heliocentric, Mars and asteroid missions some day.

[whitelancer64]

A bit off-topic, but maybe this is a good time to form commercial deep-space communications companies providing services similar to NASA's DSN.  Something will be needed for the many upcoming CLPS missions, and perhaps commercial heliocentric, Mars and asteroid missions some day.

It's been discussed in other threads before. The large size and large cost of ground dishes needed for deep space communications - particularly for Mars - and the lack of need for them for other uses, doesn't lend itself to commercial operations. The market just isn't there for it other than NASA and a few other government space probe operations.

Once SpaceX gets a permanent base on Mars, that equation may change. But it can also be changed by operating on both sides - a high power, medium size dish on Mars means you don't need a 70 meter dish on Earth to get their signals from Mars, you can use a more medium size dish. A large, high power relay satellite between Earth and Mars would make that even easier. Then both sides can use smaller dishes to send / receive signals to the relay satellite, and it both relays and boosts the signal both ways. But there's no commercial use case for any of that yet.

[Jim]

 A large, high power relay satellite between Earth and Mars would make that even easier. Then both sides can use smaller dishes to send / receive signals to the relay satellite, and it both relays and boosts the signal both ways. But there's no commercial use case for any of that yet.

That makes no sense.  How is that going to work?

[DanClemmensen]

 A large, high power relay satellite between Earth and Mars would make that even easier. Then both sides can use smaller dishes to send / receive signals to the relay satellite, and it both relays and boosts the signal both ways. But there's no commercial use case for any of that yet.

That makes no sense.  How is that going to work?

It made for some great science fiction in the 1940's
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_Equilateral
Even then, they transmitted direct between LEO and LMO when Mars was closer to Earth than the double hop.

[Jim]

 A large, high power relay satellite between Earth and Mars would make that even easier. Then both sides can use smaller dishes to send / receive signals to the relay satellite, and it both relays and boosts the signal both ways. But there's no commercial use case for any of that yet.

That makes no sense.  How is that going to work?

It made for some great science fiction in the 1940's
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_Equilateral
Even then, they transmitted direct between LEO and LMO when Mars was closer to Earth than the double hop.

Yea, that was for conjunctions and not power

[Apollo-phill]

Here is a list I made that used info from NASA paper ( whose ref I've not too hand but may have been JPL or GSFC ? )

Commercial Ground Stations

Goonhilly, UK - supports deep space, lunar and comsats X band 32m GHY-6 commercial antenna ( supported Artemis )

KSAT Singapore — Supports: S/X Band — Assets: 9.1m

​​KSAT Svalbard, Norway — Supports: S/X Band — Assets: 11.3m/11.3m/13m

​KSAT TrollSat, Antarctica — Supports: S/X Band — Assets: 7.3m/7.3m

SANSA Hartebeesthoek, South Africa — Supports: S/X Band — Assets: 12m/10m

SSC Kiruna, Sweden — Supports: S/X Band — Assets: 13m/13m

SSC Santiago, Chile — Supports: S Band — Assets: 9m/12m/13m

SSC Space US North Pole, Alaska — Supports: S/X Band — Assets: 5m/7.3m/11m/13m

SSC Space US Dongara, Australia — Supports: S/X Band — Assets: 13m

SSC Space US South Point, Hawaii — Supports: S/X Band — Assets: 13m/13m

Government Ground Stations

NASA’s Alaska Satellite Facility, Fairbanks — Supports: S/X Band — Assets: 11.3m/11m/9.1m

NASA’s Kennedy Uplink Station — Supports: S-band – Assets: 6.1m

NASA’s Ponce de Leon Station — Supports: S-band – Assets: 6.1m

NASA’s Wallops Ground Station, Virginia — Supports: VHF, S/X Band — Assets: 11m/5m

NASA’s White Sands Ground Station, New Mexico —  Supports: VHF, S/Ka Band — Assets: 18.3m

NASA’s White Sand Complex, New Mexico — Supports VHF, S/Ka Band — Assets: 11m

NASA’s McMurdo Ground Station, Antarctica — Supports: S/X Band — Assets: 10m​


Fairbanks Command and Data Acquisition Station (NOAA partnership), Gilmore Creek, Alaska
KSAT — Kongsberg Satellite Services
NASA — National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NOAA — National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
SANSA — South African National Space Agency
SSC — Swedish Space Corporation

[Apollo-phill]

There sure to be many others belonging to groups like ESA, RSA CSA and ASA maybe with others in south America, India  and Middle East.Its whether these would "loaned" on commercial basis and then of course the security of data to/fro flowing through these ground station antennas

[Jim]

SCN (former AFSCN)

Diego Garcia Station (DGS), Diego Garcia, BIOT; callsign REEF. T
Guam Tracking Station (GTS), Guam; callsign GUAM.
Hawaii Tracking Station (HTS), Kaena Point Satellite Tracking Station, Hawaii; callsign HULA.
New Hampshire Station (NHS), New Boston SFS, New Hampshire; callsign BOSS.
Telemetry & Command Station (TCS), RAF Oakhanger, in England, operated by the United Kingdom and supporting the Satellite Control Network through a Memorandum of Agreement between the UK Ministry of Defence and the US Department of Defense; callsign LION.
Thule Tracking Station (TTS), Pituffik Space Base, Greenland; callsign POGO.

[Jim]

SDO down-links science data (K-band) from its two onboard high-gain antennas, and telemetry (S-band) from its two onboard omnidirectional antennas. The ground station consists of two dedicated (redundant) 18-meter radio antennas in White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, constructed specifically for SDO


The baseline tracking for LRO is provided by a NASA station in White Sands (WS1)

[whitelancer64]

 A large, high power relay satellite between Earth and Mars would make that even easier. Then both sides can use smaller dishes to send / receive signals to the relay satellite, and it both relays and boosts the signal both ways. But there's no commercial use case for any of that yet.

That makes no sense.  How is that going to work?

You put the big / high power dishes on the relay satellite instead of on the surface of either the Earth or Mars. Then you can have small, lightweight / low power radio antennas on Mars that send a weak signal to the relay satellite. The relay satellite cranks up the signal and blasts it through its big antenna to Earth. The Earth also doesn't need a huge satellite dish to receive this more powerful signal, it can use a modestly sized one. Same process works in reverse to send signals to Mars.

[DanClemmensen]

 A large, high power relay satellite between Earth and Mars would make that even easier. Then both sides can use smaller dishes to send / receive signals to the relay satellite, and it both relays and boosts the signal both ways. But there's no commercial use case for any of that yet.

That makes no sense.  How is that going to work?

It's a question of orbital mechanics. Where is your relay going to orbit?

You put the big / high power dishes on the relay satellite instead of on the surface of either the Earth or Mars. Then you can have small, lightweight / low power radio antennas on Mars that send a weak signal to the relay satellite. The relay satellite cranks up the signal and blasts it through its big antenna to Earth. The Earth also doesn't need a huge satellite dish to receive this more powerful signal, it can use a modestly sized one. Same process works in reverse to send signals to Mars.

[darkenfast]

 A large, high power relay satellite between Earth and Mars would make that even easier. Then both sides can use smaller dishes to send / receive signals to the relay satellite, and it both relays and boosts the signal both ways. But there's no commercial use case for any of that yet.

That makes no sense.  How is that going to work?

You put the big / high power dishes on the relay satellite instead of on the surface of either the Earth or Mars. Then you can have small, lightweight / low power radio antennas on Mars that send a weak signal to the relay satellite. The relay satellite cranks up the signal and blasts it through its big antenna to Earth. The Earth also doesn't need a huge satellite dish to receive this more powerful signal, it can use a modestly sized one. Same process works in reverse to send signals to Mars.

Anything orbiting between Mars and Earth is going to be moving faster than Mars and slower than Earth, therefore the geometry of the three will change as they all make their respective ways around the Sun. This will negate any advantage of having a relay between Mars and Earth..

[Jim]

 A large, high power relay satellite between Earth and Mars would make that even easier. Then both sides can use smaller dishes to send / receive signals to the relay satellite, and it both relays and boosts the signal both ways. But there's no commercial use case for any of that yet.

That makes no sense.  How is that going to work?

You put the big / high power dishes on the relay satellite instead of on the surface of either the Earth or Mars. Then you can have small, lightweight / low power radio antennas on Mars that send a weak signal to the relay satellite. The relay satellite cranks up the signal and blasts it through its big antenna to Earth. The Earth also doesn't need a huge satellite dish to receive this more powerful signal, it can use a modestly sized one. Same process works in reverse to send signals to Mars.

Again, no sense. It doesn't help on Mars.  The relay will spend a lot of time further way than direct earth - mars.  And it can't be controlled where it needs to be.   The better solution is like now, Mars orbital relays.   Having big antennas on earth is not an issue.  Power and cooling is easy to get.

[whitelancer64]

 A large, high power relay satellite between Earth and Mars would make that even easier. Then both sides can use smaller dishes to send / receive signals to the relay satellite, and it both relays and boosts the signal both ways. But there's no commercial use case for any of that yet.

That makes no sense.  How is that going to work?

You put the big / high power dishes on the relay satellite instead of on the surface of either the Earth or Mars. Then you can have small, lightweight / low power radio antennas on Mars that send a weak signal to the relay satellite. The relay satellite cranks up the signal and blasts it through its big antenna to Earth. The Earth also doesn't need a huge satellite dish to receive this more powerful signal, it can use a modestly sized one. Same process works in reverse to send signals to Mars.

Anything orbiting between Mars and Earth is going to be moving faster than Mars and slower than Earth, therefore the geometry of the three will change as they all make their respective ways around the Sun. This will negate any advantage of having a relay between Mars and Earth..

Oh. The relay satellite should be at Sun-Mars L4 or L5.

I thought that was obvious, that way Mars radio dishes always stay low mass, low power.

[whitelancer64]

 A large, high power relay satellite between Earth and Mars would make that even easier. Then both sides can use smaller dishes to send / receive signals to the relay satellite, and it both relays and boosts the signal both ways. But there's no commercial use case for any of that yet.

That makes no sense.  How is that going to work?

You put the big / high power dishes on the relay satellite instead of on the surface of either the Earth or Mars. Then you can have small, lightweight / low power radio antennas on Mars that send a weak signal to the relay satellite. The relay satellite cranks up the signal and blasts it through its big antenna to Earth. The Earth also doesn't need a huge satellite dish to receive this more powerful signal, it can use a modestly sized one. Same process works in reverse to send signals to Mars.

Again, no sense. It doesn't help on Mars.  The relay will spend a lot of time further way than direct earth - mars.  And it can't be controlled where it needs to be.   The better solution is like now, Mars orbital relays.   Having big antennas on earth is not an issue.  Power and cooling is easy to get.

Having big antennas on Earth is a problem. They are not viable to operate commercially.

[DanClemmensen]

 A large, high power relay satellite between Earth and Mars would make that even easier. Then both sides can use smaller dishes to send / receive signals to the relay satellite, and it both relays and boosts the signal both ways. But there's no commercial use case for any of that yet.

That makes no sense.  How is that going to work?

You put the big / high power dishes on the relay satellite instead of on the surface of either the Earth or Mars. Then you can have small, lightweight / low power radio antennas on Mars that send a weak signal to the relay satellite. The relay satellite cranks up the signal and blasts it through its big antenna to Earth. The Earth also doesn't need a huge satellite dish to receive this more powerful signal, it can use a modestly sized one. Same process works in reverse to send signals to Mars.

Anything orbiting between Mars and Earth is going to be moving faster than Mars and slower than Earth, therefore the geometry of the three will change as they all make their respective ways around the Sun. This will negate any advantage of having a relay between Mars and Earth..

Oh. The relay satellite should be at Sun-Mars L4 or L5.

I thought that was obvious, that way Mars radio dishes always stay low mass, low power.

You have just about doubled the signal transit delay.

You can use even even cheaper dishes on the surface if you just put three big relays into Mars orbit. Put another set in Earth orbit. Relays talk to each other using Laser links.

[Jim]

Having big antennas on Earth is a problem. They are not viable to operate commercially.

Huh?  and a large relay satellite at Sun-Mars L4 or L5 would be?   

[Jim]

Put another set in Earth orbit.

No, that makes no sense either. 

[DanClemmensen]

Put another set in Earth orbit.

No, that makes no sense either.

It depends on how well a laser link from Mars can operate through the earth's atmosphere.

[whitelancer64]

Having big antennas on Earth is a problem. They are not viable to operate commercially.

Huh?  and a large relay satellite at Sun-Mars L4 or L5 would be?

Might be, if there's enough radio traffic to relay. Say, from a large surface base or two on Mars.