For the first time, the six antennas of NASA’s Deep Space Network in Robledo de Chavela (Madrid) carried out a test to receive data from Voyager 1 at the same time on April 20. Known as “arraying,” combining the receiving power of multiple antennas allows the DSN to collect very weak signals from distant spacecraft, NASA reports. An array of five antennas is currently needed to transmit scientific data from the spacecraft’s Plasma Wave System (PWS) instrument. As Voyager moves further away, six antennas will be needed.
Although the antennas located in the three Deep Space Network complexes (Goldstone in California, Canberra in Australia and Robledo-Madrid) have already been placed before, this is the first case in which six antennas are placed at the same time. Madrid is the only deep space communications complex that currently has six operational antennas (the other two complexes have four each). Each complex consists of a 70-meter antenna and several 34-meter antennas.
Voyager 1 is more than 15 billion miles away, so its signal on Earth is much weaker than any other spacecraft the DSN communicates with. Currently, the signal from Voyager 1 takes more than 22 and a half hours to travel from the spacecraft to Earth. To better receive radio communications from Voyager 1, a large antenna (or an array of multiple smaller antennas) can be used.
Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, are the only spacecraft to have flown in interstellar space (the space between stars).
The Deep Space Network allows missions to track, send commands and receive scientific data from distant spacecraft. With a total of 14 antennas in operation, the network currently supports more than 40 missions and is expected to support another 40 to be launched in the coming years.
The Madrid station is managed on behalf of NASA by the National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA).
