Accurate measurements of the Doppler shift of the Voyager 2 spacecraft (26 A.U.) have been performed in the period 23/7/88-12/8/88 with the 32 m VLBI antenna at Medicina (BO). The device which allows the use of VLBI instrumentation for precision Doppler tracking is basically an open- loop receiver and is called digital tone extractor (DTE). Simultaneous measurements were performed at NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) stations of the Madrid complex, using a different technique (closed loop). In the most interesting tracking configuration, the signal was transmitted in S- band (2.1GHz) from the 70m DSN station at Canberra (Australia), retransmitted back coherently from the spacecraft in X-band (8.4 GHz-19W) and received 7h 6min later at Medicina and Madrid. The main purPose of the experiment was to test the capabilities of this new system and to character- ize its performances. This task has been successfully accomplished with the acquisition of high-quality data, which are presently under analysis. We plan also to compare and correlate the data with the ones acquired at Madrid stations, in order to separate out different noise contributions to the measured signal. The use of Medicina antenna as a listen-only station is planned for the gravitational wave experiment of the Ulysses spacecraft (ESA), in 1992.
SPACECRAFT DOPPLER TRACKING WITH A VLBI ANTENNA / Comoretto, G.; Iess, Luciano; Bertotti, B.; Brenkle, J. P.; Horton, A.; Grueff, G.. - In: IL NUOVO CIMENTO DELLA SOCIETÀ ITALIANA DI FISICA. C, GEOPHYSICS AND SPACE PHYSICS. - ISSN 1124-1896. - 13:1(1990), pp. 169-176. (Intervento presentato al convegno 4TH COSMIC PHYSICS NATIONAL CONF tenutosi a CAPRI, ITALY nel SEP 11-14, 1988) [10.1007/bf02515787].
SPACECRAFT DOPPLER TRACKING WITH A VLBI ANTENNA
IESS, LucianoWriting – Original Draft Preparation
;
1990
Abstract
Accurate measurements of the Doppler shift of the Voyager 2 spacecraft (26 A.U.) have been performed in the period 23/7/88-12/8/88 with the 32 m VLBI antenna at Medicina (BO). The device which allows the use of VLBI instrumentation for precision Doppler tracking is basically an open- loop receiver and is called digital tone extractor (DTE). Simultaneous measurements were performed at NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) stations of the Madrid complex, using a different technique (closed loop). In the most interesting tracking configuration, the signal was transmitted in S- band (2.1GHz) from the 70m DSN station at Canberra (Australia), retransmitted back coherently from the spacecraft in X-band (8.4 GHz-19W) and received 7h 6min later at Medicina and Madrid. The main purPose of the experiment was to test the capabilities of this new system and to character- ize its performances. This task has been successfully accomplished with the acquisition of high-quality data, which are presently under analysis. We plan also to compare and correlate the data with the ones acquired at Madrid stations, in order to separate out different noise contributions to the measured signal. The use of Medicina antenna as a listen-only station is planned for the gravitational wave experiment of the Ulysses spacecraft (ESA), in 1992.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.