Station Delay Calibration for Ranging Measurements

The research described in this publication was carried out by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. © 2009 California Institute of Technology. Government sponsorship acknowledged. Ranging measurements in the Deep Space Network (DSN) have been contributing to spacecraft navigation and radio science investigations for 40 years. Performance over the past two decades has remained at the 1-m level limited by systematic effects. The goal of 10-cm ranging has long been sought. A task is underway to investigate possible improvements in the technique used to calibrate range measurements for delay through station microwave and electronic components. A new measurement technique is described here and the results of the first tests are presented. A comparison is given for Cassini range measurements obtained with the operational DSN system and with the new technique.