What is the significant role of the Mendoza Deep Space Antenna in space exploration?

AND a huge dish 35 meters high set into the base rises in the wild landscape of the hills Mendozanot far from the city Malargue. Together, they add up to 610 tons.

It is one of three satellite antennas for deep space missions that the European Space Agency (ESA) has around the world, forming one of only a few windows through which planet Earth has to communicate with the spacecraft over long distances and so spy on the secrets of the Universe.

This powerful tool was inaugurated in December 2012 She was 10 years old and had recently received an update to her systems in order to operate the new space missions already launched and those to come in the coming years.

In addition, earlier this month, ESA hosted the visit of an official delegation of European Union (EU) representatives accredited in Argentina and from Belgium, Finland, Italy, Poland, France and Slovenia, together with representatives of the Office of the Republic of Argentina and the Commission for Space Activities (CONAE) to the Deep Space Antenna (DS3) in Malargüe.

“This antenna is an important asset in our ground support network for ESA’s science and exploration missions,” he said. Annabelle Fonseca, from ESA’s International Relations Department during the event. And he emphasized: “We are very proud to be able to present our activities to European taxpayers as part of our successful cooperation with Argentina and CONAE more than 20 years.”

from his side Viki Lövenberg, The Head of the Economic and Trade Section of the Delegation of the European Union in Buenos Aires stated that “Argentina is a major technological and scientific player in the region, and a valued partner of the EU in joint activities in the field of space technologies.

To find out what this powerful deep space antenna, part of the ESA Tracking Station Network (ESTRACK), is all about and what missions it is tracking and how they will be expanded, Infobae he talked to Guillermo Lorenzo, head of the operations section ESTRACK that from their offices in Darmstadt, Germanyfollows the scientific work of this incredible technological tool.

“ESA has three 35 meter diameter Network Station Antenna Terminals, called DSA in English, located in Australia, Spain and Argentina, which serve communicate with interplanetary missions over 2 million kilometers. In addition, we have 7 terminals in our network of stations with antennas less than 15 meters in diameter, which are used for communication up to a distance of 400,000 kilometers. With these instruments we can communicate with all our spacecraft at short and long distances,” explained Lorenzo.

And I add: “DSA’s powerful antennas are ESA’s ground stations that help us solve some of the most important scientific questions. These are deep space monitoring stations, some of the most sophisticated in the world, such as NASA or the Japan Space Agency (JAXA), which allow spacecraft to maintain contact with Earth as they enter our solar system.

As Lorenzo described, the basic task of all ESA stations is to communicate with their space missions, sending telecommands and receiving important scientific data registered and vessel status information. The three stations, located in Australia, Spain and Argentina, are centrally controlled from ESOC Operations Center in Germany.

“They are equipped with large parabolic reflectors with a diameter of 35 meters and a weight of 610 tons, which can be rotated and pointed with extreme precision. Using data from station signals a an advanced navigation technique known as “delta-DOR”, “Engineers can locate the orbit of a spacecraft exploring Mars or Venus – at a distance of more than 100 million kilometers from Earth – with an accuracy of 1 kilometer,” added the ESA expert.

Last year the antenna located in Malargüe, Mendoza reached the age of 10 years and received a major software and hardware upgrade that allowed it to increase scientific data returns by 40% cooling the “antenna feed” to just 10 degrees above the lowest possible temperature in space (approximately -263°C).

For example, current updates will increase the amount of data that can be transmitted from spacecraft by up to 40%, allowing more high-resolution images of the Sun to be received. Solar Orbiter during the communication window. Other ESA space missions where spacecraft are already sending data are Bepi Colombo, first European mission to Mercury, the smallest and least explored terrestrial planet in our solar system.

It is a joint mission between ESA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), consisting of two science orbiters: ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO). It aims to study all aspects of Mercury, from the structure and dynamics of its magnetosphere and how it interacts with the solar wind, to its internal structure and large iron core, as well as the origin of its magnetic field.

The probe will create global maps of the chemical and elemental composition of the surface, and will take images of its formations to better understand geological processes and how the surface has changed due to impact craters, tectonic activity, volcanism and polar ice deposits. This data will allow scientists to learn more about the origin and evolution of a planet near its parent star and to better understand the general evolution of our Solar System.

An antenna in Argentina, along with those in Spain and Australia They are also in touch with ESA’s Juice spacecraft sending signals across interplanetary space, beyond the orbit of Mars, into the Jupiter system. The spacecraft is navigating its complex journey to the icy moons of our solar system’s largest planet to get a close-up look at Ganymede, Europa and Callisto.

It also supports The agency’s Euclidean Space Telescope, on its mission to shed light on the true nature of dark matter and energy by observing billions of galaxies up to 10 billion light-years from Earth.

“Demand for downlink capacity from stations is greater than ever. In the coming years, the agency is preparing to launch new spacecraft deeper into our solar system and to support missions from an increasing number of partner space agencies. At the same time, new spaceships, They will have more capacity to transmit data and we need more antennas to collect this information,” Lorenzo hinted, hinting that space missions and communication capacity from Earth will multiply.

“Our prediction is that from 2029 we will need more antennas to support more space missions. A new antenna was planned to be built in Australia this year. It would be the fourth 35-meter diameter antenna to meet the growing demand for communications bandwidth as the Agency prepares and launches a new generation of space security systems and for deep space missions,” said Lorenzo.

In a normal year, The Esttrack network provides over 15,000 hours of tracking support for 20 or more missions, with an enviable service availability rate of over 99%. But according to the needs of future astronomy and deep space missions, an estimate of the use of ground stations for the next decade has been made, taking into account ESA’s developing missions as well as potential missions such as L5 Space Weather (ESA). ) and WFIRST (NASA).

According to the analyzes carried out, it is considered necessary to implement additional resources in two new 35-meter antennas located along the length of Australia and Argentina, or which are necessary to support an average of 26,000 hours of monitoring/year require upcoming missions.

Independent access to space remains a strategic goal for Europe. In the future, space missions will become increasingly demanding in terms of performance (for example, higher data throughput) and capabilities (for example, new frequency bands). “For this reason, we are also doing a new study to expand and have one more antenna in South America. With the installation in Malargüe, there is a possibility that a new antenna will be built there, although other options are on the table,” Lorenzo revealed.

Just as ESA has already signed with the Australian government to install a second DSA on its lands to expand space coverage, it is studying the same with Argentina or another South American country, thus expanding its capacity in these latitudes.

“When we signed with the Argentine and provincial governments to install the Mendoza antenna, ESA was promised the construction of a paved route from the town of Malargüe to a space base that is still It was not fulfilled. The construction of this paved road, which is key to optimizing the arrival of personnel and scientific equipment to the antenna, is essential to accelerate the agreement to expand the ESTRACK network in Mendoza. That would be a plus point,” emphasized Lorenzo.

And he concluded: “In these years, mutual cooperation with Argentina was essential, scientific partnership and local development. There are also scientific agreements with CONAE that allow part of the use of the antenna to Argentine scientists. I would like to express my gratitude to the Argentine authorities, technicians and scientists, as well as the Malargüe Planetarium, which has an ESA space. We have a very good relationship with CONAE, which has a significant impact on local Argentine science,” he concluded.