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Palomar

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2002-05-30

Posts: 9,734

Re: DSNA & White Sands?

*This is from the Associated Press.  It was posted as part of space.com's "Astronotes"

New Mexico May Get New Deep Space Antennas

ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - NASA is considering New Mexico as the new US home for a cluster of dish-shaped radio antennas.

The antennas would be used to communicate with NASA’s spacecraft.

Deep Space Network Array project manager Joe Statman said Monday that officials are considering two sites next to White Sands Missile Range. The antennas would replace an aging station in Goldstone, California. Goldstone also is in the running for the replacement array. Statman says it’ll be several years before a decision is made.

NASA is doing preliminary environmental analyses of the candidate sites, and the project doesn’t yet have federal funding.

White Sands is a large area (yes, I know the article says "next to"), so ultimately may not be much closer to my home than the VLA in Socorro is.  Hopefully we'll be chosen, though.  :up:  More jobs, economy boost.

--Cindy

P.S.:  Hmmmm, I wonder how many years is "several years" before the decision is made?  ???  :-\

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We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 29,072

Re: DSNA & White Sands?

well this is good for employment seen, but what will they communicate with since the voyager probes and others that are currently out of range? These programs are being ended due to the 2006 budget year.