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KA9LCF > NEWS 24.08.12 21:54l 61 Lines 2346 Bytes #999 (0) @ ALLIN
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Sent: 120824/0420Z 38165@KA9LCF.#NEIN.IN.USA.NOAM [169247]FBB7.01.35 alpha $:38
From: KA9LCF@KA9LCF.#NEIN.IN.USA.NOAM
To : NEWS@ALLIN
ULTIMATE DX: LISTENING FOR THE MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER
AND LANDER
Want to try your hand at some truly out of this world DX
listening? With the successful lading of NASA's rover
Curiosity on Mars, some hams are thinking of trying to catch
signals from the new rover directly or those from the Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter circling the Red Planet. Is it
possible? Amateur Radio Newsline's Bruce Tennant, K6PZW
takes a look at the communications aspect of the mission:
--
Thanks to some research by the Southgate News, it turns out
the Curiosity rover transmits on frequencies around 401 MHz
but the transponder on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter or
MRO has a CCSDS Forward Frequency in the 437 MHz Amateur
Satellite Service band. This is because 435 to 438 MHz is
shared with the Military and 432 to 438 MHz is also a Space
Surveillance Radio Band. In fact, general space usage
extends beyond that.
So how does it all work? Well the Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter has a UHF transponder known as MELACOM that operates
between 401 to 437 MHz. It also has a pair of patch
antennas to communicate with any landed asset on Mars
surface supporting the CCSDS Proximity-1 protocol. And with
it all working the way it has throughout this mission,
signals from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are being
received back on Earth.
While NASAs Deep Space Network has no problem in hearing the
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the question might be if a ham
radio station with its simple equipment might be able to do
the same. If you want to give it a try there are two papers
from NASA that might be of assistance.
The first describes the operation of the Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter. It can be found at tinyurl.com/mro-operations.
The other is titled Mars Express and the NASA landers and
rovers on Mars - Sustaining a backup relay in an
interplanetary network. Its URL is tinyurl.com/space-
communications. Both of these documents are in Adobe .PDF
format.
For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I,m Bruce Tennant, K6PZW, in
Los Angeles.
--
Oh, if you are successful in hearing either the lander or
the orbiter please be sure to record any audio you hear
along with the story of how you accomplished it. We will be
happy to share it with our listeners, world wide.
(Southgate, ARNewsline)
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