New answers tagged communication
21
Yes, they could theoretically communicate with each other over the DSN, however in practice this will not happen (as it has no current uses).
The amount of functions that Curiosity can perform autonomously is very limited and predetermined. It usually involves some sort of deterministic operation such as moving a rover arm or performing a drill sample (...
2
I was fortunate to have worked on Voyager, and other projects at JPL from 1970 to 1975. I was also fortunate to have had Solomon Golomb, PhD, as my advisor and mentor in Electrical Engineering graduate school at USC in the late 1960's. I wanted to study communications theory, and Dr. Golomb was the only professor at USC who was involved in that area. ...
3
Spectrum management is both science and art. One way of avoiding interference is using separate frequencies for different systems. If the spectrum can be confined to national boundaries, then usually it is licensed by the country administration (FCC, Ofcom etc.) however, if you want to operate a global system, the allocation must be done on an international ...
2
JPL operates the "Deep Space Communications and Navigation Center of Excellence" they call "DESCANSO" with this home page. They publish (online) a huge trove of information on general characteristics of deep space communications systems and also specifics — sometimes in excruciating detail! — about many of the deep space missions JPL has operated.
3
With the development of phased-array antenna's, blocking of satellite communications will become increasingly difficult to impossible. Prosecution of users and/or a ban on importing/using antennas is probably the only feasible option to avoid the majority of people from using the service.
Phased array antennas use a number of antennas to shape the combined ...
0
Power limitations are tricky, in particular choosing a power source
whose mass isn't much more than that of the spacecraft.
Nonrechargeable batteries have too short a shelf life.
Internal combustion engines that small have been tried, and abandoned.
A milligram-scale RTG + supercap, maybe with a Diamond battery,
is the only way I know to sustain 40 Kbps to ...
7
This is discussed on the project website. Essentially each probe would carry a small laser and use its lightsail to focus that beam back towards the solar system, where a huge and very sensitive telescope array would be needed to detect it.
Images of the target planet could be transmitted by a 1Watt laser onboard the nanocraft, in a ‘burst mode’ which ...
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