LiveChat Roundup - 1/10/13

By Jim Gerard, NASA INSPIRE Specialist, KSC, FL

Communication is crucial to the safety of spaceflight. This was the message to the 39 participants of the INSPIRE LiveChat with education specialist Michael Hare of the Johnson Space Center. Mr. Hare, a former television producer is now contracted to the Digital Learning Network, a NASA program that presents live online chats to students around the globe.

Communication through various wave bands are utilized to link the astronauts on the space station to the ground and the many control rooms around the world. Because the International Space Station is truly international, the countries involved all have their own control rooms. These and the ISS are linked together by a network of satellites called TDRS (Tracking and Data Relay Satellite). These satellites are locate in a geosynchronous orbit (they orbit high enough to take 24 hours to orbit, keeping over the same point on the earth as it rotates). A new TDRS satellite will be launched from Cape Canaveral at the end of the month.

These same systems will be used to aid in the communication with future spacecraft. The further you travel, the longer the time it takes for a radio signal to reach its target. A question asked to an astronaut on Mars could take 25 minutes before an answer is received.

Communication with robotic spacecraft is just as important, and Mr. Hare talked about the elaborate means by which we communicated with the Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity) as it landed on the Martian surface. Most of the communication with these robotic craft is through the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Deep Space Network, a series of radio antennae around the globe. From earth orbit all the way out to Voyager on the edge of the Solar System, we can listen to the faints radio signals that are sent back to earth. The technology developed to  provide this communication have been adapted for many commercial uses, from satellites TV to cell phones.

This reuse of technology is called a Spinoff, and that is the subject of our next LiveChat with returning speaker Daniel Lockney of the Langley Research Center in Virginia.  He will share some of the latest technology transfers from the last year, and what to look forward to in 2013. We look forward to seeing you on our next LiveChat!

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