European Space Agency inaugurates new deep space communications antenna

The European Space Agency (ESA) has inaugurated a new deep space communications antenna in Australia, designed to improve links with missions millions of kilometers from Earth, AFP reports. Installed at the New Norcia ground station, north of Perth, the antenna has a diameter of 35 meters and becomes the fourth in ESA's global communications network. The other three are located in Spain, Argentina and, also in Australia, on the same site. The new infrastructure will support a series of major ESA scientific missions: the Euclid space telescope, dedicated to the study of dark energy and matter; the HERA mission, which investigates the Didymos-Dimorphos asteroid system; the BepiColombo probe, which is on its way to Mercury; and the JUICE mission, which will explore the icy moons of Jupiter. "Without a network of ground stations to communicate with spacecraft, space exploration and science would not be possible,” said Simon Plum, ESA's Head of Mission Operations.

ESA's ground stations allow signals to be received and transmitted to spacecraft over 2 million kilometres away, using the X, K and Ka frequency bands.

• Ultrafine communications

To detect extremely weak signals from deep within the solar system, key components of the antenna are cryogenically cooled to around -263°C, very close to absolute zero. This technology reduces background noise and increases the sensitivity of the receivers. Since the first such antenna was inaugurated in 1998, the amount of data transmitted between Earth and European space probes has grown exponentially. "Everything is becoming more and more data-hungry. Our scientific instruments are more advanced, and the number of missions is constantly increasing,” explained Mehran Sarkarati, head of ESA's Earth Station Engineering Division. The official said that plans are already underway to build a fifth antenna to meet the growing demand for interplanetary communications.

• Global network for future space exploration

ESA's Deep Space Antenna Network is essential for controlling and coordinating space probes beyond the orbit of the Moon. Without these stations, interplanetary exploration missions would not be able to send back scientific data to Earth. By expanding the infrastructure in Australia, the European Space Agency is strengthening Europe's role in the global competition for solar system exploration, at a time when interest in the Moon, Mars and asteroids is growing.