![]() ![]() But as the Hubble missions came to an end, they recognized these platforms could serve additional purposes aboard the space station. Kevin Carmack and his team at Goddard previously designed platforms for the Hubble Space Telescope servicing missions to hold tools and hardware in the cargo bay of the space shuttle. Not only does Goddard handle the communications services for the space station, but teams at the center have also contributed hardware that make it possible for the station to support numerous science experiments. Enhancing the Scientific Capabilities of the Orbiting Laboratory This collaboration helps the commercial teams determine how many onboard communications systems are needed, identify which NASA network to use, implement emergency backup systems, and more. SpaceX is currently working on the Crew Dragon spacecraft, while Boeing is building the Starliner CST-100.Īs these companies design and construct their vehicles, Mark Severance and Neil Mallik, the Networks Integration Management Office network directors for human spaceflight, are guiding and supporting the design of these spacecraft communications systems, ensuring full compatibility with NASA’s communication networks. That list will continue to grow – in September 2014, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program signed contracts with two private companies, Boeing and SpaceX, to create the next vehicles to carry astronauts to the International Space Station. Currently, the network provides these services for three different spacecraft traveling to the station: the Japanese HTV, the SpaceX Dragon and the Orbital ATK Cygnus. In addition to everyday data transfers, the Space Network provides communications for missions transporting cargo to and from the station. In the next several years, Goddard is working to increase the data rate to 600 megabytes per second as NASA expands its human spaceflight endeavors to Mars and beyond. That’s enough to fill two CD-ROMs a minute, more than 700 a day. Currently, the Space Network can transmit 300 megabytes of data per second. The space station flies about 250 miles above Earth, about 36 times the cruising altitude at which the average jet airliner flies, and downlinks data through the TDRS spacecraft via the Space Network to the ground, where it is directed to Goddard and various other NASA data centers.įrom start to finish, the process happens in the blink of an eye. Ground systems operate as a relay between satellites to provide a communications network to the space station and other NASA missions 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. The Space Network consists of a constellation of Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRSs) and supports missions within a million miles of Earth, which is about four times the distance between Earth and the moon. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |