Out of This World

Posted by tourdemars to Interplanetary Internet at December 24, 2003 12:00 PM

The solar system's largest wireless network just got a face-lift. With $54 million of improvements — including a new 110-foot antenna near Madrid, Spain — the Deep Space Network (DSN) is ready to support a barrage of space research in 2004. The DSN, operated for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., will be used to communicate with spacecrafts landing on Mars collecting comet dust, and probing the rings and moons of Saturn. Although its maximum throughput of 2.2 Mbps may seem slow compared with standard wireless Wi-Fi networks, the DSN will be able to send signals beyond Pluto's orbit to Voyager 1.