A Large Array of Small Antennas to Support Future NASA Missions

A team of engineers and scientists at JPL is currently working on the design of an array of small radio antennas with a total collecting area up to twenty times that of the largest existing (70 m) DSN antennas. An array of this size would provide obvious advantages for high data rate telemetry reception and for spacecraft navigation. Among these advantages are an order-of-magnitude increase in sensitivity for telemetry downlink, flexible sub-arraying to track multiple spacecraft simultaneously, increased reliability through the use of large numbers of identical array elements, very accurate real-time angular spacecraft tracking, and a dramatic reduction in cost per unit area. NASA missions in many disciplines, including planetary science, would benefit from this increased DSN capability. The science return from planned missions could be increased, and opportunities for less expensive or completely new kinds of missions would be created. The DSN array would also bean immensely valuable instrument for radio astronomy. Indeed, it would be by far the most sensitive radio telescope in the world. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.