Telecommunication system with high-rate downlink for deep space exploration

Abstract

In this paper, a relatively low-cost and high reliability telecommunication system for deep space exploration has been proposed. By comparing with some typical deep space exploration missions, the number of system components was minimized while providing up/downlink channel redundancy to guarantee the system reliability. Two Ka-band downlinks, two simultaneous X-band uplinks and an X-band downlink were configured in the system to achieve TT&C for the spacecraft in all mission phases and high-rate downlink for large amounts of science data. Taking the Venus explorer mission as an example, simulation and calculation results show that, on average 150Gb/day of science data can be downloaded through a 35m station, TT&C link in any attitude can be achieved. By adjusting some parameters, the proposed telecommunication system can also be applied in other deep space exploration spacecrafts, such as asteroid, Jupiter and Mars exploration missions.