A team at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex is tasked with making 'first contact' with NASA's largest and most expensive spacecraft, the Europa Clipper, on its journey to Jupiter's fourth-largest moon.
At 3am on a Monday morning as most of Australia slept, a small CSIRO team was wide awake and hard at work at Canberra 's deep space tracking station.
But the mission milestone — or Level One Critical Point — meant extra hands and eyes were necessary, so the CDSCC was tasked with making "first contact" with the spacecraft after it separated from its launch rocket.CDSCC's education and public outreach manager Glen Nagle said the station had to make sure it could stay in contact with the spacecraft.
So it was a relief for the Canberra team, when the "acquisition of signal" came through from the solar-powered robotic Europa Clipper, as it started its five-and-a-half year, USD$5 billion mission.CDSCC has been involved in hundreds of space missions since 1965, when it received the first close-up pictures of the surface of Mars from Mariner 4.
"When the spacecraft switches on, its transmitter is designed to transmit from a huge distance, hundreds of millions of kilometres from the Earth, when it's only a few hundred kilometres above the Earth," Mr Nagle explained."Shortly after launch, it's like it's shouting down at us we have to get the antennas out tune them down," Mr Nagle said.
Voyager 2 has required plenty of engineers' attention lately, and Canberra is the only site of the three able to help it "phone home".
Canberra Local News Local Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex CDSCC Glen Nagle Kevin Coggins NASA CSIRO Europa Clipper Jupiter Europa Moon Tracking Radio Signals Spacecraft Probe
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