Cooling that will increase the data flow of spacecraft away from Earth

European Space Agency (ESA) ground stations are used to send instructions to spacecraft and receive data collected by the spacecraft via a “downlink”.

The demand for downlink capacity from stations is higher than ever. In the coming years, the agency is preparing to launch new spacecraft further into our solar system and to support the missions of a growing number of partner space agencies.

To increase the downlink capacity, you need to build new antennas or improve the performance of existing ones. ESA does both.

While a much needed new distant space antenna is being built in Australia, it is important (and cost effective) to get the most performance possible from current antennas. A series of enhancements to ESA’s ground station network address this.

These upgrades will be made to ESA’s three 35-meter space antennas and will increase the flow of scientific data by 40% by cooling the antenna charger (the system that connects the physical antenna to the electronic transmitter and receiver. ) to about 263 degrees Celsius below zero, or only 10 degrees above absolute zero (273 below zero).

With this increase of up to 40% in the amount of data downloadable from the spacecraft, for example, it will be possible to receive more high-definition images of the Sun from the Solar Orbiter during a communication interval.

Future updates in higher frequency bands will represent an 80% increase in downloadable data, almost double the data from deep space reaching Darmstadt.

This smart technology will also increase the sensitivity of ESA’s distant space antennas, expanding their reach to support future ESA missions that venture to Uranus and Neptune.

“With these improvements, ESA pushes the limits of what is technically possible and allows scientists to explore new worlds and collect unprecedented amounts of data”, explains Stéphane Halté, engineer of the ground station of the ‘ESA in charge of the project with Filippo Concaro.

“The improvements came at the right time,” said Andrea Accomazzo, chief of exploration and solar system missions at ESA’s space operations center in Darmstadt. “They give us the performance we need to mitigate the high demand on our monitoring network and continue to provide the highest level of data return for a growing number of scientists. “

One of the antennas used by ESA. (Photo: © ESA / S. Halté)

The details:

The integration of the first new cryo-cooled antenna charger was completed in May 2021 at the ESA station in Cebreros, Spain.

Cebreros upgrade increases data processing speed on X-band frequencies by up to 40%.

The ESA station in Malargüe will receive in 2022 the same upgrade of the X-band feeder as well as a new “Ka-band” cryogenic feeder, with which an increase in data rate of up to 80 % is expected. This will greatly benefit current missions, such as BepiColombo, and future missions, such as Juice. The New Norcia antenna will receive the upgrade later.

Cooling the power electronics minimizes the effects of “thermal noise”, allowing reception of weaker signals. Below 10K, impurities from metals used in electronics begin to limit the benefits of additional cooling.

The French company Callisto Space, which received funding from ESA during the five years of technology development, is responsible for the manufacture of cryogenic feeders. The Canadian company Calian carries out the integration of the new technology in the antennas.

The technology was tested at NASA’s 2019 High Power Transmitter Test Center in Goldstone, Calif. Rated at 30 kilowatts, roughly the equivalent of the power of 30,000 mobile phones. used at the same time.

Specific ultra-low noise semiconductor technology has been developed with partner universities (Chalmers University and ETH Zurich) to achieve maximum noise performance. The same technology is used today for the development of quantum computers. This is an example that the technological development of ESA can support the scientific community in general and the competitiveness of European companies.

Other updates on the Etrack network

ESA’s smaller branches, located in French Guiana and Sweden, are benefiting from several equally needed performance upgrades. In doing so, the entire Estrack network is preparing for future ESA space projects.

At the European spaceport of Kourou in French Guiana, ESA’s 15-meter antenna is being upgraded with new “TTCP modems”, which allow the highest data transmission rates to be achieved, in view of future lunar and terrestrial missions and space weather.

In Kiruna (Sweden), the two ESA antennas will see an evolution of the fundamental monitoring and control system, as well as a new antenna charger and the renovation of the 13m ‘Kiruna 2’ antenna and several improvements to Kiruna-1. (Source: ESA)