The world鈥檚 first commercial deep-space communications antenna conducted its first operational work on 11 July, receiving images from the European Space Agency鈥檚 Mars Express mission. The pictures 鈥� which showed a thin Martian crescent and the cratered, ochre disc of the planet 鈥� were downlinked via the antenna designated , in the south-west UK.
The 32-metre-wide antenna, which received the call from Mars, was built in 1985. It was formerly used for telecommunications work with geostationary satellites but has recently been extensively refurbished and retrofitted with specialist equipment and electrical systems so it can talk to modern spacecraft further out in the solar system.
鈥淭his has been a major project,鈥� says , Goonhilly Earth Station鈥檚 chief technology officer. 鈥淲e have replaced nearly all the bolts on the structure, as well as replacing everything from the motors, gearboxes, feed, RF [radio frequency] equipment, modems and control systems. The only thing that we did not replace is the main and subreflectors 鈥� although we did paint them.鈥�
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The receiving of the Mars images during routine operations at Goonhilly comes after numerous tests to make sure that the GHY-6 antenna could successfully converse with the Mars Express spacecraft. The European Space Agency (ESA) has been heavily involved in that work and the overall transformation of the antenna; the agency will now be able to use Goonhilly to command and receive data from Mars Express and the gamma-ray-observing space telescope , and perhaps other ESA projects too.
鈥淲e are now part of the ESA Augmented ESTRACK network, which means that we can be tasked by any ESA mission that wishes to use us,鈥� says Cosby.
While the GHY-6 antenna will help supplement ESA鈥檚 own communications capabilities, and potentially those of other space agencies, it will also be available to companies requiring the ability to communicate with and control their spacecraft. One such organisation is 鈥� based in Texas 鈥� which is aiming to send two of its robotic Nova-C landers to the moon next year; the IM-1 and IM-2 missions would make use of Goonhilly鈥檚 deep-space antenna when they beam back telemetry, as well as scientific data and images, from the lunar surface.
鈥淭o conduct continuous communications with our Nova-C lunar lander, we need large antennas spread around the world,鈥� says Troy Leblanc, the vice president of control centers at Intuitive Machines. 鈥淭he GHY-6 antenna provides that coverage for both IM-1 and IM-2 when the moon is viewable from the Eastern Atlantic, Europe and Western Asia.鈥�
The Goonhilly team is aiming to have the GHY-6 antenna running around the clock from January 2022 as part of its work with Intuitive Machines and ESA. Cosby hopes there could also be other big roles for the Cornish facility in the future. 鈥淐ome the mid-2020s, I would like to see the antenna be used to receive the videos from the surface of the moon as humans return,鈥� he says.
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