Dive into the Deep Space Network

This week, MSc student Brittney Cooper examines the Deep Space Network, a key asset for Planetary Science. Above, you can see a screenshot of the live DSN page, on what we now know to be the penultimate planned attempt to contact Opportunity – a tip of the hat to an amazing rover mission and its team. 

by Brittney Cooper

I know I’m quite behind the times with this but I recently stumbled upon the live Deep Space Network (DSN) page called “DSN NOW,” and I’ve been mildly obsessed with it ever since, keeping the page open as a permanent tab in my browser. Getting to see cool things happen in real time definitely is part of the appeal, but my involvement in MSL mission operations has also allowed me to develop a deeper appreciation for this kind of thing… definitely more than I ever had before. 

Being a part of MSL mission planning has you navigating and working around communications passes when satellites orbit overhead the rover, meaning that mission scientists have to manage the data volumes of observations so that necessary data can be down for the next planning day, and the lower priority stuff can trickle down later on.

AGU 100th Fall Meeting

 The pause in blog posts here is entirely my fault - I've been on sabbatical travelling in the South Pacific and have a backlog of three to post, so look for even more tales of trials, tribulations and triumphs from the members of PVL in the coming days! We kick off the new year with Dr. Paul Godin's trip to the 2018 AUGFM. Above is Paul's photo of the AGU 100 sign at that Meeting.

by Dr. Paul Godin

The fall meeting of the American geophysical union (AGU) is one of the largest scientific conferences in the world, attracting over 10,000 attendees. This year they celebrated their 100th meeting; and it was my first time attending. The fall meeting was traditionally held in San Francisco, but due to on going renovations of the San Francisco Moscone Convention Centre, the meeting has been moving around America. AGU 100 was held in Washington D.C., so while I didn’t get to enjoy the warmth of San Francisco, I did get to enjoy visiting the American Capitol (luckily the meeting was before the shutdown, so everything was open for tourists at that time).