Status of Delta-DOR interoperability

Den Hagg

Nov 06th, 2017

Mattia Mercolino ESA/ESOC

Summary

Ka-band Quasar catalogue activities TTCP test/deployment Development of PN DDOR Test with VLBI antennas on Cassini Radiometer deployments Antenna array Radio-science implementation

Ka-band Quasar catalogue activities [1]

PRSR returned from JPL to MLG. Already used in several VLBI passes (and Cassini)

First issue of Ka-band Quasar catalogue still TBC. If notissued can become an issue for ESA support to use of MLG

First comparisons of VLBI X/Ka RF frame with GAIA opticalframe issued with promising results

What about testing the use of TTCP (with RDEF) in X/Kasimultaneously?

Request to install (temporarily) a PRSR in CEB for stabilitytesting of antennas in Robledo. Request is under evaluation

Request to keep a PRSR in NNO after Cassini support Requestis under evaluation

TTCP test/deployment (1) TTCP installed in 2 out of three ESA DSA (CEB and MLG)

2 TTCP in CEB (equivalent to 4 IFMS) 1 TTCP in MLG (2nd to come by mid-December) 2 TTCP in NNO to come by June-August 2018 (in any case prior to

BepiColombo launch, October 2018) As of now, parallel installation of 2 TTCP and 2 IFMS for fall-back (after

final period of operational utilisation of TTCP IFMS will be removed) OL functionality

16 channels (max 32 Msps per channel) Max BW = 160MHz (can actually cover more, if needed) RDEF output

Integer frequency Non-integer time-tags

TTCP test/deployment (2) E2E and operational tests (1)

This included all TC / TM / coding / Doppler / RNG and DDOR (OL) tests (in static, lab conditions).

DDOR ops test being conducted with TTCPs at CEB and MLG with GAIA Issues found in the operational tests with GAIA (~1ns a-priori DDOR

residual difference between IFMS-based and TTCP-based system)

0.00E+00

5.00E‐10

1.00E‐09

1.50E‐09

2.00E‐09

2.50E‐09

3.00E‐09

81500 82000 82500 83000 83500 84000 84500 85000 85500 86000

TTCP resid

IFMS resid

TTCP test/deployment (3) E2E and operational tests (2)

Change of OL version in TTCP in September (with static test in lab) 1 operational pass taken on MEX (around Mars) on DOY298. A-priori

DDOR do not show a significant bias between IFMS-based and TTCP-based DDOR. Results under evaluation by OD group

From November, GAIA DDOR will be taken with TTCP as prime.‐1E‐08

‐8E‐09

‐6E‐09

‐4E‐09

‐2E‐09

0

2E‐09

4E‐09

6E‐09

8E‐09

32000 32500 33000 33500 34000 34500 35000IFMS resid

TTCP resid

Development of PN DDOR

ESTEC is developing a prototype of future on-board Deep Space Transponder Platform under Tech. Research Programme Prototype will implement the PN DDOR as specified in the study on

1nrad DDOR presented in Fall 2016 Prototype completed CDR Completion of prototype is expected by Q2-2018 Testing at ESOC is planned in a static (no Doppler) environment

with representative DDOR Rx chains (simulating 2 stations) and the prototype correlator for PN DDOR

Test to be executed within Q4-2018

Test with VLBI antennas

Collaboration between ESOC/University of Bologna and INAF Tracking of Cassini performed in three dates between August and

September (prior to Grand Finale) Use of INAF VLBI antennas of Noto and Medicina (34-m) Update of translator between Mark-V and RDEF needed (current

translator is from MK-VA RDEF, new format is MK-VB) Translator being developed in collaboration with University of Bologna

Radiometers deployment (1) Deployment of Microwave radiometers at ESA DS sites

Few HATPRO (humidity/temperature profiler) have been procured for installation in ESTRACK Main purpose: to collect attenuation statistics at X/Ka band Can also be used to provide good estimations of tropospheric wet

path delay under testing (preliminary results good, more longer campaign being planned) for Doppler and DDOR

First instrument deployed in CEB (Nov 2014) Second instrument deployed in NNO in May 2017. Third instrument deployed in Malargüe in July 2017 Data collection on-going on all instruments (first results published in

EuCAP conference in March 2017) Prototyping of Tropospheric Delay Calibration System (TDCS) for Radio-

Science experiments. Target completion date end 2017

Radiometers deployment (2) Prototyping of Tropospheric Delay Calibration System (TDCS) for Radio-

Science experiments. Instrument completed S/W being finalised E2E test started

End: Dec 2017 Outdoor test

Start: Jan 2018 End: Mar 2018 (TBC)

After outdoor test Installation in MLG

Antenna Arraying Development of off-line correlator for antenna arraying

Purpose: develop algorithms and proof-of-concept for (future) on-line correlator

Baseline is CEB-MLG Supported mod/cod

Demod: SP-L on carrier, NRZ-L on subcar., GMSK (Bt=0.25) Decod: R-S, convolutional, Turbo (1/2, 1/4. 1/6)

Will be tested on flying mission (EXMO/Mars Express/GAIA) Will be able to interface with the SLE interface and directly to

Mission Control System Project start date: Jun 2016 Status: TRR completed in March 2017 testing just started First test planned in Feb/Mar 2018 Expected finish date: Q2 2018

Radio-science capability Radio-science capability implementation

BepiColombo and JUICE have financed the implementation of radio-science capability. At the moment capability to be develop at MLG only. Test with KaT and TTCP performed as part of BepiColombo

Radio-Science RFCT

Installation of retrofitted 100W Ka-SSPA February 2018. Installation of prototype TDCS by Q3-2018.