Frequency bands for Mars in-situ communications

Abstract

The recent decision to send two rovers to Mars in 2003 has provided new direction for Mars exploration. To meet these future challenges, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is preparing the Deep Space Network (DSN) and other communication systems to support the expected increase in Mars exploration activities. Toward this end, JPL is conducting studies to enhance communications and navigation capabilities on or around Mars for future Mars missions and is investing in hardware development for use by those missions. One such study is developing a multiple-access scheme and a frequencyutilization plan for in-situ communications and navigation. The results of this study will provide recommendations for developing communications hardware for future Mars missions, establishing interoperability processes and standards, ensuring access to the radio frequency spectrum for operations at Mars and for testing at Earth, and designing a communication and navigation infrastructure around Mars. This paper will focus on the selection of frequencies for local ("in situ'') links at Mars. Various factors affecting the selection of frequencies, including link performance, propagation effects, and mission scenarios, will be discussed.

Probability of data loss between mars tumbleweed rovers

“…Frequency bands currently communicate telemetry and sensor data to include UHF, X-Band, and S-Band [8]. T communication environment is envisioned robotic missions on, Mars and its for future human ent political and development will er" [6].…”

“…1 depicts this he intent of this a from rover A to tive and scope of or data loss as the rover has a fixed eive data. [8].…”

“…1. The value of many of these variables come from a study done on the frequency bands for Mars communication [8]. For current commercial off the shelf (COTS) transmitters and receivers a low cost solution would allow for a transmit power, , of 100mW or 20 dBm [6], [8].…”

“…Given that the power to transmit information directly back to earth or to an orbiting satellite is prohibitive, the design calls for relaying the information back to a main base station on the Martian surface [8].…”

Simulation and analysis of the multipath environment of Mars

“…The assumption is that a future Mars lander to these regions could serve as a network access point linking surface rovers and sensors to an orbitting relay station [9]. The specific sites for simulation were chosen to be near the center of the ellipse as well as at the outer edge of the ellipse and are given in Table 1.…”