After nearly breaking, NASA’s Deep Space Network “worked well” on Artemis II

在几近崩溃后，NASA 深空网络在“阿尔忒弥斯 2 号”任务中表现良好

NASA pushed its Deep Space Network beyond its limits during the Artemis I mission nearly four years ago. The global array of deep space communications antennas couldn’t keep up with the routine demands of 40 robotic science missions and the extraordinary surge required by NASA’s Orion space capsule as it flew around the Moon. 近四年前，在“阿尔忒弥斯 1 号”（Artemis I）任务期间，NASA 将其深空网络（DSN）推向了极限。这个由全球深空通信天线组成的阵列，既要应对 40 个机器人科学任务的日常需求，又要满足 NASA“猎户座”太空舱绕月飞行时产生的巨大通信激增，显得力不从心。

The experience in late 2022 reduced or delayed downlinks from several high-profile science missions, including the James Webb Space Telescope and Mars rovers, as the data-hungry Artemis I mission took priority on NASA’s communications network. And that was before the first Artemis mission with astronauts onboard. 2022 年末的经历导致多个备受瞩目的科学任务（包括詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜和火星探测器）的下行链路数据减少或延迟，因为数据需求巨大的“阿尔忒弥斯 1 号”任务在 NASA 通信网络中占据了优先权。而这还是在尚未搭载宇航员的首次阿尔忒弥斯任务阶段。

When Artemis II launched April 1, NASA called upon the Deep Space Network (DSN) again to connect Mission Control to the Orion capsule as it soared more than a quarter of a million miles from Earth. With a crew of four flying inside the spacecraft, the agency’s appetite for data from Orion on Artemis II was even higher than it was on Artemis I. 4 月 1 日“阿尔忒弥斯 2 号”发射时，NASA 再次动用深空网络，以连接任务控制中心与远在 25 万英里之外的“猎户座”太空舱。由于航天器内搭载了四名机组人员，NASA 对“阿尔忒弥斯 2 号”任务中“猎户座”的数据需求甚至超过了“阿尔忒弥斯 1 号”。

But at a little more than nine days, the Artemis II mission was shorter than the 25 days Artemis I spent in space, helping alleviate the communications overload. Artemis I also launched 10 small CubeSats into deep space, many of which required tracking and telecom services from the DSN. Artemis II carried fewer CubeSats. 但“阿尔忒弥斯 2 号”任务时长仅九天多，短于“阿尔忒弥斯 1 号”在太空中的 25 天，这有助于缓解通信过载。“阿尔忒弥斯 1 号”还向深空发射了 10 颗小型立方星（CubeSats），其中许多需要 DSN 提供跟踪和电信服务。而“阿尔忒弥斯 2 号”携带的立方星较少。

“We learned a lot on Artemis I, and we actually put some new processes in place ahead of Artemis II, mostly focused around coordination and our scheduling processes with all the missions, not just the Orion vehicle itself,” said Greg Heckler, deputy program manager for capability development in NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation Program. “I think that worked well.” “我们在‘阿尔忒弥斯 1 号’中学到了很多，实际上在‘阿尔忒弥斯 2 号’之前，我们实施了一些新的流程，主要集中在与所有任务的协调和调度流程上，而不仅仅是针对‘猎户座’飞船本身，”NASA 太空通信与导航项目能力开发副项目经理格雷格·赫克勒（Greg Heckler）表示，“我认为这些措施效果很好。”

Lessons learned

经验教训

Heckler said NASA’s science division, responsible for most of the missions using the DSN, provided the network’s managers with “positive feedback” after Artemis II. But the limitations of the network and the high demand continue to “create some asset contention” among NASA’s missions. 赫克勒表示，负责大部分使用 DSN 任务的 NASA 科学部门在“阿尔忒弥斯 2 号”任务后向网络管理人员提供了“积极反馈”。但网络的局限性和高需求持续在 NASA 各项任务之间“造成了一些资源争夺”。

“During Artemis I, we had a subsystem called the Private Cloud Appliance. This PCA actually failed during Artemis I. Because of that failure, that high visibility, we actually received some additional resources from our Moon to Mars program, and we were able to install, effectively, a new subsystem ahead of Artemis II,” Heckler said. “在‘阿尔忒弥斯 1 号’期间，我们有一个名为‘私有云设备’（PCA）的子系统。该系统在任务期间发生了故障。由于这次故障及其引发的高度关注，我们实际上从‘月球到火星’计划中获得了一些额外资源，并得以在‘阿尔忒弥斯 2 号’之前有效地安装了一个新的子系统，”赫克勒说。

The demand for signal is only going up. NASA and its commercial and international partners plan to launch numerous missions to the Moon in the next few years. NASA is working with commercial providers to construct ground antennas for a dedicated network for Moon missions, called Lunar Exploration Ground Sites (LEGS), to free up more capacity on the DSN to support other spacecraft. 信号需求只会不断增加。NASA 及其商业和国际合作伙伴计划在未来几年内向月球发射大量任务。NASA 正与商业供应商合作，为月球任务构建一个名为“月球探测地面站”（LEGS）的专用网络地面天线，以释放 DSN 的更多容量来支持其他航天器。

Commercial companies are also developing data relay satellites to fly in orbit around the Moon, supporting future landers and construction of a Moon Base. High-bandwidth optical communications may be another solution. NASA successfully tested a laser communications terminal on the Orion spacecraft on Artemis II. 商业公司也在开发绕月轨道运行的数据中继卫星，以支持未来的着陆器和月球基地的建设。高带宽光通信可能是另一种解决方案。NASA 在“阿尔忒弥斯 2 号”的“猎户座”飞船上成功测试了激光通信终端。

“We’re going to have to work as a community to deal with that higher level of contention during the Artemis missions themselves, but we’re doing everything to establish non-DSN, or new infrastructure, to take on that load and burden,” Heckler said Wednesday in a meeting of the Small Bodies Assessment Group. “我们必须作为一个整体共同努力，以应对阿尔忒弥斯任务期间更高水平的资源争夺，但我们正在尽一切努力建立非 DSN 的新基础设施，以承担这些负载和负担，”赫克勒周三在小天体评估小组会议上表示。

Asking for more

寻求更多资源

The burden currently includes around 40 operating missions that rely on the DSN’s antennas in California, Spain, and Australia to stay in communication with Earth. Most of NASA’s missions outlive their original design lives, so they put demand on the network for longer as the agency launches new spacecraft. 目前的负担包括大约 40 个正在运行的任务，它们依赖位于加利福尼亚州、西班牙和澳大利亚的 DSN 天线与地球保持通信。NASA 的大多数任务寿命都超过了最初的设计寿命，因此随着该机构发射新的航天器，它们对网络的需求时间也更长。

About 40 more missions are projected to need the DSN over the next 10 years, and many of the 40 missions currently using time on the network will likely still be operating over that time. One of NASA’s most data-intensive missions, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, is scheduled for launch in August. It will return more data through the DSN than all of NASA’s previous astrophysics missions combined. 预计未来 10 年内还将有约 40 个任务需要使用 DSN，而目前正在使用该网络的 40 个任务中，许多在未来一段时间内可能仍会继续运行。NASA 数据密集度最高的任务之一——南希·格蕾丝·罗曼太空望远镜（Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope）定于 8 月发射。它通过 DSN 传回的数据量将超过 NASA 之前所有天体物理任务的总和。

The 10 CubeSats that launched as secondary payloads on Artemis I placed an unforeseen burden on the DSN. Some of the small satellites were lost soon after deploying from the rocket, and their operators called upon the DSN to use its giant antennas to search for the CubeSats as they headed into deep space, further exacerbating the communications crunch the network was already experiencing with the Orion spacecraft. 作为“阿尔忒弥斯 1 号”次级载荷发射的 10 颗立方星给 DSN 带来了意想不到的负担。其中一些小卫星在从火箭部署后不久就失联了，其运营商要求 DSN 使用巨型天线在它们进入深空时进行搜寻，这进一步加剧了网络因“猎户座”飞船而面临的通信紧张状况。

“Before onboarding new missions to the DSN, we now strictly require a feasibility study to see if there’s enough capacity to make that type of commitment,” Heckler said. “So we’re trying to balance, through data and analysis, the new demands coming onto the system versus those legacy missions we have to support until they fly out due to natural causes.” “在将新任务接入 DSN 之前，我们现在严格要求进行可行性研究，以确定是否有足够的容量做出此类承诺，”赫克勒说，“因此，我们正试图通过数据和分析来平衡系统面临的新需求，以及那些我们必须支持到其自然寿命结束的遗留任务。”

DSN managers are also working with NASA’s older missions, some of which continue to pull on the network decades after their launch, to understand how much capacity they will use. As these older missions got extended, some of them did not update the network on their needs. DSN 管理人员也在与 NASA 的老旧任务团队合作，了解它们将使用多少容量——其中一些任务在发射几十年后仍在使用该网络。随着这些老旧任务的延长，一些任务并没有及时更新其对网络的需求。

“Some missions are using more than what their paperwork would say,” Heckler said. “Once that is in place, as we move forward with new mission commitments, we will just be more focused, I think, and more process-oriented in being able to commit to new missions or not,” Heckler said. “有些任务使用的资源超过了它们文件中的说明，”赫克勒说，“一旦落实到位，随着我们推进新的任务承诺，我认为我们在决定是否承担新任务时，会更加专注且更注重流程。”

Key antenna offline

关键天线离线

One constraint on the DSN is an accident last year that knocked one of the network’s three 70-meter (230-foot) antennas offline at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex near Barstow, California. This antenna, along with similar ones in Spain and Australia, is used to communicate with some of NASA’s most distant missions. The 70-meter dish was tracking NASA’s Juno spacecraft at Jupiter last September when it “over-rotated” and damaged… DSN 面临的一个制约因素是去年发生的一起事故，导致位于加利福尼亚州巴斯托附近的戈德斯通深空通信中心（Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex）的三座 70 米（230 英尺）天线之一离线。该天线与西班牙和澳大利亚的同类天线一样，用于与 NASA 一些最遥远的任务进行通信。去年 9 月，当这座 70 米口径的天线正在跟踪木星附近的“朱诺号”探测器时，它发生了“过度旋转”并受损……