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UHF Relay Antenna Measurements on Phoenix Mars Lander MockupThe Phoenix Lander, a NASA Discovery mission which lands on Mars in the spring of 2008, will rely entirely on UHF relay links between it and Mars orbiting assets, (Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)), to communicate with the Earth. As with the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) relay system, non directional antennas will be used to provide roughly emispherical coverage of the Martian sky. Phoenix lander deck object pattern interference and obscuration are significant, and needed to be quantified to answer system level design and operations questions. This paper describes the measurement campaign carried out at the SPAWAR (Space and Naval Warfare Research) Systems Center San Diego (SSC-SD) hemispherical antenna range, using a Phoenix deck mockup and engineering model antennas. One goal of the measurements was to evaluate two analysis tools, the time domain CST, and the moment method WIPL-D software packages. These would subsequently be used to provide pattern analysis for configurations that would be difficult and expensive to model and test on Earth.
Document ID
20080013223
Acquisition Source
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Document Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
External Source(s)
Authors
Ilott, Peter
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Harrel, Jefferson
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Arnold, Bradford
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Bliznyuk, Natalia
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Nielsen, Rick
(Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center San Diego, CA, United States)
Dawson, David
(Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center San Diego, CA, United States)
McGee, Jodi
(Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center San Diego, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 24, 2013
Publication Date
October 22, 2006
Subject Category
Space Communications, Spacecraft Communications, Command And Tracking
Meeting Information
Meeting: Antenna Measurements and Techniques Association (AMTA)
Location: Austin, TX
Country: United States
Start Date: October 22, 2006
End Date: October 27, 2006
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
scattering
relay
range evaluation
Spacecraft Antenna Measurements
Mars antennas

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