The European Deep Space Antenna Alliance (E-DSA²), formed by Thales Alenia Space, Schwartz Hautmont, and mtex antenna technology, celebrated the inauguration of the European Space Agency’s NNO-3 deep space antenna masterpiece for the New Norcia ground station near Perth, Australia, on October 4. NNO-3 is part of ESA’s ESTRACK global network of ground stations.
This new-generation 35-meter antenna will enable ESA to increase its communication capabilities in X, K, and Ka frequency bands. It will expand its antenna network made for tracking and collecting scientific data from ESA spacecraft in the solar system, including missions such as the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, currently orbiting around the Red Planet, and Euclid, which will cover one third of the sky studying dark matter and energy, to name a few. These jewels of high technology will be joined by upcoming missions such as Plato, designed to detect and observe exoplanets, whose launch is scheduled for next year.
Days ago, NNO-3 successfully received its first signal coming from the Euclid spacecraft. The deep-space antenna challenge is to pick up very faint signals and then boost them considerably for transmission from and to objects in deep space, to enable reception of science data and uploading of commands to space probes.
Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between Thales (67 %) and Leonardo (33 %), is the consortium partner in charge of the antenna’s overall performance. The company was also responsible for the antenna systems engineering, the overall system, and equipment (radio frequency, power, cooling, etc.). Schwartz-Hautmont was responsible for the antenna mechanical structure engineering, manufacturing, and installation. MTex antenna technology was in charge of the antenna mechanical design, procurement, installatio,n and testing.
“I would like to thank the European Space Agency for placing its trust in our consortium to carry out the manufacturing of the second Deep Space Antenna in New Norcia, now the fourth in ESA’s network,” said Thales Alenia Space CEO, Hervé Derrey. “This first major success for the E-DSA² consortium will surely pave the way for other opportunities on the institutional market and beyond.”
“This project, which started as a challenge to improve the performance of existing antennas, has extracted the best of each E-DSA² consortium member. We are happy to deliver this state-of-the-art antenna and are grateful to the ESA for having trusted us,” said Antonio Aldecoa, Schwartz Hautmont’s CEO.
Click here to know more about the ESA's ESTRACK Antenna Network
