Ultra-stable RF-over-fiber transport enables NASA ground-based deep space tracking antenna arrays and space-borne earth mapping radar

Abstract

The Mojave Desert north of Los Angeles in Southern California is a place of rolling hills, shallow valleys, and jagged outcrop-pings of rock, which are the remains of ancient mountains. It is a land inhabited by rattlesnakes, tarantulas, giant scorpions, and poisonous hunting spiders (called vinegaroons by the locals) because their bite leaves the taste of vinegar in your mouth. The plants are mostly sagebrush, cactus, and Joshua trees. The temperature can rise above 100 deg F during daytime and drop below freezing at night. In the middle of this desert, 50 km northwest of Barstow, is Goldstone, a ghost town abandoned at the end of the gold rush era.