News Eyes on the Deep Space Network

Unstung

Active member
Joined
Dec 10, 2008
Messages
1,712
Reaction score
3
Points
38
Location
Milky Way

Recently JPL launched a new "eyes on" website that monitors when the radio antennas of the Deep Space Network are communicating with spacecraft. Deep Space Network Now includes information such as data rate, frequency, and accurate image representations of each antenna.

DSN activity as of this post:
DSNN.png
 

Loru

Retired Staff Member
Retired Staff
Addon Developer
Donator
Joined
Sep 30, 2008
Messages
3,731
Reaction score
6
Points
36
Location
Warsaw
9 dishes at work (and one talking to Voyager2) as this post (17:52 UTC+1)

DSN.jpg
 

SolarLiner

It's necessary, TARS.
Addon Developer
Joined
Jun 14, 2010
Messages
1,847
Reaction score
2
Points
0
Location
404 ROAD NOT FOUND
Was on it too. It's just awesome to think that this dish is receiving data from sources that far away.
 

SolarLiner

It's necessary, TARS.
Addon Developer
Joined
Jun 14, 2010
Messages
1,847
Reaction score
2
Points
0
Location
404 ROAD NOT FOUND
After Unstung posted this idea on the ChatBox, I thought this was a so good idea that I started coding.
His idea was to have the DSN Now app as a desktop wallpaper that reflects the status in "almost-realtime".

This works for me, but may not for you. Try it if you want, and PM me your feedback ;)

dsn_wallapaper_works.jpg


To install: Unzip wherever you want, and execute "DSN_Wallpaper.exe"
You might want to add a shortcut to it on the "Startup" folder of the start menu, to have it automatically launch at start (and may add the "-silent" argument to not show the options window).
Downlaod: ZIP (13.2 Mb) | EXE (8.6 Mb)
 

Unstung

Active member
Joined
Dec 10, 2008
Messages
1,712
Reaction score
3
Points
38
Location
Milky Way
I appreciate the effort, and it works on my end too:
DSN_Wall.png

I like the options for the update frequency. It's nice and simple for something that takes a screenshot of a website and updates the desktop, but not the prettiest thing. I think that some image editing could be applied to every screen grab, but I don't want to force you to work on something trivial like this. I've had a hard enough time writing equation solving programs for my basic programming classes.
 

Keatah

Active member
Joined
Apr 14, 2008
Messages
2,218
Reaction score
2
Points
38
It was interesting to note that MRO's signal at DSN antenna is something like 5.71x10-55 KW, much weaker than Voyager 1's signal which blasts through at an overwhelming 2.53X10-23KW!

I also saw a "spacecraft" named PHA, which stands for Antenna Phasing, or maintenance.

I've been following this site since it started up and discover something new every week!

---------- Post added at 02:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:53 AM ----------

Anyone see anything on Madrid 63?
 

Unstung

Active member
Joined
Dec 10, 2008
Messages
1,712
Reaction score
3
Points
38
Location
Milky Way
It was interesting to note that MRO's signal at DSN antenna is something like 5.71x10-55 KW, much weaker than Voyager 1's signal which blasts through at an overwhelming 2.53X10-23KW!
That must be an error or something atypical. The MRO has a pretty large high gain antenna that was made to transfer a lot of data frequently, and it's currently the record holder. Looking at the dishes now, the power received by Voyager 1 is on the order of 10-23 kW, Cassini 10-21 kW, Mars Orbiter Mission 10-20 kW, and LADEE 10-19 kW. It makes quite a bit of sense. The Voyagers are pretty frequent communicators, probably due to their really low data rate of 160 bits/second.

There's nothing happening with Madrid 63 on DSN Now at this time.
 
Top