{"dataset":{"slug":"antennas","title":"Antennas","description":"Ground and spacecraft antennas used for deep-space communication, from 70 m dishes to laser terminals.","version":"1.0.0","lastGenerated":"2026-06-29","license":"CC BY-SA 4.0","entityCount":8,"sources":["nasa","jpl"]},"entities":[{"id":"antenna:thirty-four-metre-beam-waveguide","name":"34-metre Beam-Waveguide Antenna","type":"antenna","domain":"science","description":"The modern workhorse antennas of the Deep Space Network. A beam-waveguide design routes the signal through mirrors to equipment in a shielded room below, allowing several to be arrayed and supporting X- and Ka-band.","entryPath":"/deep-space-network/antenna/thirty-four-metre-beam-waveguide"},{"id":"antenna:thirty-four-metre-high-efficiency","name":"34-metre High-Efficiency Antenna","type":"antenna","domain":"science","description":"An earlier generation of 34 m Deep Space Network antenna with the feed at the dish, being gradually retired in favour of the beam-waveguide design.","entryPath":"/deep-space-network/antenna/thirty-four-metre-high-efficiency"},{"id":"antenna:seventy-metre","name":"70-metre Antenna","type":"antenna","domain":"science","description":"The largest and most sensitive dishes of the Deep Space Network — one at each complex (Goldstone, Madrid, Canberra). Their huge collecting area is reserved for the most distant or weakest spacecraft, such as the Voyagers, and for radar astronomy.","entryPath":"/deep-space-network/antenna/seventy-metre"},{"id":"antenna:spacecraft-high-gain","name":"High-Gain Antenna (Spacecraft)","type":"antenna","domain":"science","description":"The main dish on a spacecraft, which focuses its signal into a narrow, high-gain beam that must be pointed accurately at Earth. It carries the high-rate science downlink — for example Voyager's 3.7 m dish.","entryPath":"/deep-space-network/antenna/spacecraft-high-gain"},{"id":"antenna:laser-communication-terminal","name":"Laser Communication Terminal","type":"antenna","domain":"science","description":"An optical (laser) communication terminal that transmits data on an infrared beam rather than radio. NASA's Deep Space Optical Communications terminal flew on the Psyche spacecraft and set deep-space data-rate records.","entryPath":"/deep-space-network/antenna/laser-communication-terminal"},{"id":"antenna:spacecraft-low-gain","name":"Low-Gain Antenna (Spacecraft)","type":"antenna","domain":"science","description":"A near-omnidirectional spacecraft antenna that needs no accurate pointing, used for command and low-rate telemetry — the safety-net link that works even when a spacecraft has lost attitude control.","entryPath":"/deep-space-network/antenna/spacecraft-low-gain"},{"id":"antenna:spacecraft-medium-gain","name":"Medium-Gain Antenna (Spacecraft)","type":"antenna","domain":"science","description":"A spacecraft antenna with a broader beam than the high-gain dish, trading data rate for easier pointing — useful during manoeuvres or as a backup.","entryPath":"/deep-space-network/antenna/spacecraft-medium-gain"},{"id":"antenna:phased-array","name":"Phased-Array Antenna","type":"antenna","domain":"science","description":"Instead of one large dish, many smaller antennas whose signals are combined electronically to act as a single larger aperture. Arraying is a future direction for the Deep Space Network, offering flexible, scalable collecting area.","entryPath":"/deep-space-network/antenna/phased-array"}]}