Japanese deep-space station with 64-m-diameter antenna fed through beam waveguides and its mission applications

The Usuda Deep Space Center of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science is a Japanese spacecraft tracking station constructed in October 1984. The station is equipped with a 64-m diameter antenna and associated electronics to support deep-space missions. The paper describes the 3-year development process of the station. The beam-waveguide configuration is described in detail to demonstrate its flexibility to modifications in order to adapt to subsequent missions. System configuration and operation examples are also given for several missions. >