The Cover The upper cover image is an artist’s concept of the Phoenix Lander with legs deployed and thrusters on just before landing on the surface of Mars. This rendition was created by Corby Waste of JPL in 2003. As the Mars program artist, he has created artwork for several Mars missions [1]. During lander surface operations, the Phoenix project generated many exotic images from Mars. One of these, the lower cover image [2], is a vertical projection that combines hundreds of exposures taken by the lander’s Surface Stereo Imager camera and projects them as if looking down from above. The black circle is where the camera itself is mounted on the lander, out of view in images taken by the camera. North is toward the top of the image. This view comprises more than 100 different Stereo Surface Imager pointings, with images taken through three different filters at each pointing. The images were taken in the period from the 13th Martian day, or sol, after landing to the 47th sol (June 5 through July 12, 2008). The lander's Robotic Arm appears cut off in this mosaic view because component images were taken when the arm was out of the frame. DESCANSO Design and Performance Summary Series Article 15 Phoenix Telecommunications J im T aylor Stan Butman C had E dwards P eter I lott R ichard K ornfeld Dennis L ee Scott Shaffer Gina Signori J et Pr opulsion L abor ator y C alifornia I nstitute of T echnology Pasadena, California National Aeronautics and Space Administr ation J et Pr opulsion L abor ator y C alifor nia I nstitute of T echnology Pasadena, California August 2010 This research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not constitute or imply endorsement by the United States Government or the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. Copyright 2010 California Institute of Technology. Government sponsorship acknowledged. DESCANSO DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE SUMMARY SERIES Issued by the Deep Space Communications and Navigation Systems Center of Excellence Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Joseph H. Yuen, Editor-in-Chief Articles in This Series Article 1—“Mars Global Surveyor Telecommunications” Jim Taylor, Kar-Ming Cheung, and Chao-Jen Wong Article 2—“Deep Space 1 Telecommunications” Jim Taylor, Michela Muñoz Fernández, Ana I. Bolea Alamañac, and Kar-Ming Cheung Article 3—“Cassini Orbiter/Huygens Probe Telecommunications” Jim Taylor, Laura Sakamoto, and Chao-Jen Wong Article 4—“Voyager Telecommunications” Roger Ludwig and Jim Taylor Article 5—“Galileo Telecommunications” Jim Taylor, Kar-Ming Cheung, and Dongae Seo Article 6—“Odyssey Telecommunications” Andre Makovsky, Andrea Barbieri, and Ramona Tung Article 7—“Deep Space 1 Navigation: Extended Missions” Brian Kennedy, Shyam Bhaskaran, J. Edmund Riedel, and Mike Wang Article 8—“Deep Space 1 Navigation: Primary Mission” Brian Kennedy, J. Edmund Riedel, Shyam Bhaskaran, Shailen Desai, Don Han, Tim McElrath, George Null, Mark Ryne, Steve Synnott, Mike Wang, and Robert Werner Article 9—“Deep Impact Flyby and Impactor Telecommunications” Jim Taylor and David Hansen Article 10—“Mars Exploration Rover Telecommunications” Jim Taylor, Andre Makovsky, Andrea Barbieri, Ramona Tung, Polly Estabrook, and A. Gail Thomas iii Article 11—“ Mars Exploration Rover Navigation” Louis A. D’Amario Article 12 —“Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Telecommunications” Jim Taylor, Dennis K. Lee, and Shervin Shambayati Article 13 —“Dawn Telecommunications” Jim Taylor Article 14 —“Mars Science Laboratory Telecommunications Systems Design” Andre Makovsky, Peter Ilott, and Jim Taylor Article 15 —“Phoenix Telecommunications” Jim Taylor, Stan Butman, Chad Edwards, Peter Ilott, Richard Kornfeld, Dennis Lee, Scott Shaffer, and Gina Signori iv Table of Contents THE COVER ......................................................................................................... II TABLE OF CONTENTS ...................................................................................... V LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................VII LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................IX Blank x Foreword ........................................................................................................... xi Acknowledgements ........................................................................................ xiii PREFACE .......................................................................................................... XV 1 MISSION AND SPACECRAFT SUMMARY .............................................. 1 1.1 Mission Description ............................................................................... 1 1.1.1 Objectives ............................................................................................ 1 1.2 Launch/Arrival Period Selection ........................................................... 2 1.2.1 Phoenix Landing Site ........................................................................... 2 1.3 LAUNCH PHASE AND INITIAL ACQUISITION ....................................... 5 1.3.1 Launch Vehicle ..................................................................................... 5 1.3.2 Launch Sequence ................................................................................ 6 1.4 Cruise Phase .......................................................................................... 9 1.5 Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) Phase ......................................... 11 1.6 Flight System Description ................................................................... 17 1.6.1 Engineering Subsystems and Functions............................................ 18 1.6.2 Payload (Science Instruments) .......................................................... 20 2 TELECOM SUBSYSTEM OVERVIEW .................................................... 27 2.1 Telecom for Launch and Cruise .......................................................... 27 2.1.1 Initial Acquisition ................................................................................ 27 2.1.2 Cruise ................................................................................................. 29 2.2 Entry, Descent, and Landing ............................................................... 34 2.3 Surface Operations .............................................................................. 38 2.4 X-Band Flight Subsystem Description................................................ 40 2.4.1 Small Deep Space Transponder (SDST) ........................................... 42 2.4.2 X-Band Solid State Power Amplifier (SSPA) ..................................... 47 2.4.3 Antennas ............................................................................................ 48 2.4.4 X-band Microwave Components ........................................................ 52 2.5 UHF Flight Subsystem Description ..................................................... 54 v 2.5.1 UHF Transceiver ................................................................................ 56 2.5.2 UHF Antennas .................................................................................... 59 2.5.3 UHF Coaxial Transfer Switches ......................................................... 65 2.6 Landing Radar ...................................................................................... 66 2.6.1 Radar Design ..................................................................................... 66 2.6.2 Radar Performance ............................................................................ 68 2.7 Telecom Hardware Mass and Power Summary .................................. 70 2.7.1 X-Band Mass ...................................................................................... 70 2.7.2 Telecom-Related Spacecraft Power Consumption ............................ 71 3 GROUND SYSTEMS ............................................................................... 72 3.1 X-Band Operations: The Deep Space Network .................................. 72 3.2 EDL Operations .................................................................................... 74 4 TELECOM SUBSYSTEM LINK PERFORMANCE .................................. 76 4.1 X-Band Performance during Cruise through Separation .................. 76 4.1.1 Initial Acquisition ................................................................................ 76 4.1.2 Early Cruise ........................................................................................ 77 4.1.3 Trajectory Correction Maneuvers ....................................................... 79 4.1.4 Cruise Data Rates .............................................................................. 81 4.2 UHF Performance during EDL and Surface Mission .......................... 82 4.2.1 EDL (UHF) ......................................................................................... 82 4.2.2 Surface (UHF Relay) .......................................................................... 89 5 FLIGHT OPERATIONS.......................................................................... 100 5.1 Phoenix-MEX Mission Operations System ....................................... 100 5.1.1 Overflight Planning and Forward-Link Concept