New antenna systems for NASA satellites.

• Position: Science & Technology

Sophisticated signal processing techniques and simple proof-of-principle antenna arrays built from PVC pipe, aluminum foil, and copper wire could revolutionize the way NASA obtains data from its Earth-observing satellites. If the adaptive array system being studied by NASA and Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, researchers ultimately proves feasible, it dramatically could decrease the cost of building and maintaining ground stations. Ultimately, that could make information from the space agency's Earth-observing satellites more widely and rapidly available.

"The dream would be to provide total global coverage with these antenna systems and to network the systems together to make these NASA information services available to anybody sitting at a computer, almost like video-on-demand," explains Mary Ann Ingram, a professor in Georgia Tech's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. "Timely information from Earth-observing satellites could be useful in many ways, such as directing operations to fight a forest fire, for instance."

Information from satellites such as Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) now is downlinked to various 11 -meter dishes, primarily in the Arctic Circle, where sub-zero temperatures create maintenance and reliability issues for their complex aiming mechanisms. Typically, satellites like EO-1 are in contact with these antenna systems between five and eight times per day for 10 minutes at a time. The present systems...