By Their Powers Combined – NASA

May 1, 2024

This April 20, 2024, image shows a first: all six radio frequency antennas at the Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex, part of NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN), carried out a test to receive data from the agency’s Voyager 1 spacecraft at the same time.

Combining the antennas’ receiving power, or arraying, lets the DSN collect the very faint signals from faraway spacecraft. Voyager 1 is over 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) away, so its signal on Earth is far fainter than any other spacecraft with which the DSN communicates. It currently takes Voyager 1’s signal over 22 ½ hours to travel from the spacecraft to Earth. To better receive Voyager 1’s radio communications, a large antenna – or an array of multiple smaller antennas – can be used. A five-antenna array is currently needed to downlink science data from the spacecraft’s Plasma Wave System (PWS) instrument. As Voyager gets further way, six antennas will be needed.

Image Credit: MDSCC/INTA, Francisco “Paco” Moreno

← Previous ArticleNext Article →

Tech Today: Stay Safe with Battery Testing for Space – NASA

Technicians Work to Prepare Europa Clipper for Propellant Loading – NASA

A fast and flexible approach to help doctors annotate medical scans

Toward video generative models of the molecular world

Tiny organisms, huge implications for people

In international relations, it’s the message, not the medium

Study could lead to LLMs that are better at complex reasoning

A new catalyst can turn methane into something useful

Study suggests new molecular strategy for treating fragile X syndrome

Finding some stability in adaptable brains

Tech Today: NASA Helps Find Where the Wildfires Are – NASA

Quantum simulator could help uncover materials for high-performance electronics

Is it the school, or the students?

MIT chemists explain why dinosaur collagen may have survived for millions of years

NASA Enables SPHEREx Data Return Through Commercial Partnership – NASA

Key Portion of NASA’s Roman Space Telescope Clears Thermal Vacuum Test – NASA

Gateway: Energizing Exploration – NASA

Technicians Work to Prepare Europa Clipper for Propellant Loading – NASA

Scientists preserve DNA in an amber-like polymer

CHARMed collaboration creates a potent therapy candidate for fatal prion diseases

Modular, scalable hardware architecture for a quantum computer

NASA Awards Simulation and Advanced Software Services II Contract – NASA

MIT course helps researchers crack secrets of ancient pottery

Understanding the visual knowledge of language models

Using liquid air for grid-scale energy storage

Key Portion of NASA’s Roman Space Telescope Clears Thermal Vacuum Test – NASA

NASA’s Mini Rover Team Is Packed for Lunar Journey – NASA

How to assess a general-purpose AI model’s reliability before it’s deployed

NASA Releases First Integrated Ranking of Civil Space Challenges – NASA

Beneath the biotech boom

Aug 15, 2025

NASA-Developed Printable Metal Can Take the Heat – NASA

Until now, additive manufacturing, commonly known as 3D printing, of engine components was limited by the lack of affordable metal alloys that could withstand the extreme temperatures of spaceflight. Expensive metal alloys were the only option for 3D printing engine parts until NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, developed the GRX-810 alloy. The primary […]

Read Article

Aug 15, 2025