MRO Ka-band Demonstration: Cruise Phase Lessons Learned

NASA´s mars reconnaissance orbiter (MRO) was launched on August 12, 2005 and was inserted into Mars orbit successfully on March 10, 2006. From September 2005 through January 2006, the Ka-band signal from the spacecraft was tracked several times by NASA´s deep space network (DSN). During these tracks a number of Ka-band functions for both the spacecraft and the ground systems were tested. These tests were performed to assess the readiness of the ground system and spacecraft to support Ka-band demonstration activities during MRO´s primary science phase (PSP). As a result of these tests a number of important lessons were learned regarding the performance of the Ka-band link and the performance of the ground equipment. This paper presents the performance of the ground antenna pointing, delta differential one-way ranging (DeltaDOR) performance and the telemetry performance of the Ka-band link. These results indicate that the extra effort for pointing calibration of the ground antennas at Ka-band is extremely useful; Ka-band shows potential for improved DeltaDOR performance and the models for Ka-band performance of the ground station microwave noise temperature are very accurate.