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Track Level Compensation Look-up Table Improves Antenna Pointing PrecisionThe pointing accuracy of the NASA Deep Space Network antennas is significantly impacted by the unevenness of the antenna azimuth track. The track unevenness causes repeatable antenna rotations, and repeatable pointing errors. The paper presents the improvement of the pointing accuracy of the antennas by implementing the track-level-compensation look-up table. The table consists of three axis rotations of the alidade as a function of the azimuth position. The paper presents the development of the table, based on the measurements of the inclinometer tilts, processing the measurement data, and determination of the three-axis alidade rotations from the tilt data. It also presents the determination of the elevation and cross-elevation errors of the antenna as a function of the alidade rotations. The pointing accuracy of the antenna with and without a table was measured using various radio beam pointing techniques. The pointing error decreased when the table was used, from 1.5 mdeg to 1.2 mdeg in elevation, and from 20.4 mdeg to 2.2 mdeg in cross-elevation.
Document ID
20090019029
Acquisition Source
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Gawronski, Wodek
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Baher, Farrokh
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Gama, Eric
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 24, 2013
Publication Date
July 6, 2006
Publication Information
Publication: SPIE Proceedings: Telescope Structures, Drives, and Enclosures II
Publisher: International Society for Optical Engineering
Volume: 6273
Subject Category
Optics
Meeting Information
Meeting: Optomechanical Technologies for Astronomy
Location: Orlando, FL
Country: United States
Start Date: May 24, 2006
End Date: May 31, 2006
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
Rotation
Microwave antennas
Error analysis
Precision engineering

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