Cooperation on the

Stanford-JPL Antenna Facility



VISION

As you exit the 280 Freeway near Stanford, you follow a sign to the "Stanford-JPL Antenna Facility". About a mile south of the freeway, you see a modern facility that includes 5 18-m antennas, a control room, and a visitor center. The facility is shared by four organizations, each using it for 25% of the time:

1. JPL outreach program, enabling high-school student access to this radio-astronomy capability, from schools in the US and overseas.

2. Stanford outreach to amateur radio-astronomers, sponsored by the Friends of the Bracewell Observatory Association (FBOA)

3. Stanford faculty and students, for projects on mechanical systems, wide-band low-noise amplifiers,  RF and IF circuits, and radio-astronomy research

4. JPL DSN Array project, for testing of arraying and signal processing, including long-duration, 24x7 tracking of NASA's deep space missions

The visitor center, operated by the FBOA, includes a museum of radio-astronomy equipment, a gift shop, and a classroom hosting lectures for visiting groups. 



BENEFITS

The JPL Outreach program will use the facility to extend the reach of the Lewis Center. The Center, located in Apple Valley, California, enables access by thousands of high school students across the US, and in high schools operated by the DoD overseas, to decommissioned NASA antennas. The students operate the antennas remotely, collect radio-astronomy data, and even participate in publishing research papers.

Stanford Office of Science Outreach, through The Friends of the Bracewell Observatory Association  will provide an outreach venue through which interested parties could access a high-quality research instrument, under JPL-Stanford guidance.

Stanford faculty and students will use the array to conduct hands-on projects in the areas of microwave circuit design, mechanical design, software development, and system integration, either internal to Stanford, or as commissioned by JPL or other users. The facility can also be used for radio-astronomy research by Stanford faculty and graduate students and for tracking of Stanford (or cooperative institutions) microsatellites.

The JPL DSN Array will use the facility to test advanced high-speed arraying technology, telemetry equipment, and operations concepts, largely over the internet, from a JPL control center. Many of the tests will involve tracking, over extended periods, of NASA deep space missions - the 5 18-m antennas, arrayed, could be equivalent to the standard NASA 34-m antenna.

CONFIGURATION



KEY GATES

1. Validate that the antennas can operate at X-band (8.4-8.5 GHz)
??

??

??

??

DRAFT - J. STATMAN - 9/29/2005 - DRAFT