Check Out NASA's New "Dashboard" for Spacecraft Communications

By Nancy Atkinson - March 14, 2014 at 3:36 PM UTC | Space Exploration
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How do scientists and engineers communicate with their spacecraft? All the robotic missions going to various points in our Solar System wouldn't be possible if not for the Deep Space Network. And now there's a fun new tool to watch how that communication works.

DSN Now

is a live visualization of NASA's Deep Space Network usage and which spacecraft the various antennae are talking to.

It shows realtime data of which of the three antenna complexes are being used to communicate with the various missions, how far away the spacecraft are, and various other details about data rates, speeds and modes. DSN Now is from NASA's wonderful

Eyes on the Solar System website

(which uses real data to provide simulated 3-D views from of the Solar System). DSN Now came online today, March 14, 2014.

The Deep Space Network is not only used for sending commands and receiving data, but also for orbit determination, which is keeping track of where the spacecraft are with radiometric tracking data so that spacecraft navigators can get probes exactly where the scientists want them to go. The three 70-meter antennas, located at the DSN complexes at Goldstone, California, Madrid, Spain, and Canberra, Australia.

You can check out

DSN Now here.

[caption id="attachment_12653" align="aligncenter" width="225"]

The Goldstone Antenna, part of the Deep Space Network. Image Credit: JPL[/caption]

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com