Malargüe Station

Malargüe Station
The Malargüe station antenna.
Alternative names DSA 3 Edit this on Wikidata
Named after Malargüe Edit this on Wikidata
Observatory ESTRACK Edit this on Wikidata
Location(s) Mendoza Province, Argentina Edit this at Wikidata
Coordinates 35°46′34″S 69°23′54″W / 35.776°S 69.3982°W / -35.776; -69.3982Coordinates: 35°46′34″S 69°23′54″W / 35.776°S 69.3982°W / -35.776; -69.3982 Edit this at Wikidata
Organization European Space Operations Centre Edit this on Wikidata
Altitude 1,550 m (5,090 ft) Edit this at Wikidata
Wavelength 2, 8, 32 GHz (14.99, 3.75, 0.94 cm)
Telescope style Ground station Edit this on Wikidata
Diameter 35 m (114 ft 10 in) Edit this at Wikidata
Mounting Altazimuth mount Edit this on Wikidata Edit this at Wikidata
Website www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Operations/Estrack/Malarguee_-_DSA_3 Edit this at Wikidata
Location of Malargüe Station

Malargüe Station (also known as DSA 3 or Deep Space Antenna 3) is a 35-metre ESTRACK radio antenna in Argentina.[1] It enables the European Space Agency (ESA) to communication with spacecraft in deep space. It is located 40 kilometres (25 mi) south of the town of Malargüe, Argentina. The Malargüe antenna has two sister stations, Cebreros Station, near Madrid, Spain, and New Norcia Station near New Norcia, Australia. The completion of this station allows ESTRACK to track deep space missions continuously.

On 7 December 2011, the station's 35 m-diameter dish antenna was hoisted into place. The operation took several hours and had to wait for a calm day with no wind.[2] The station underwent tests in 2012 and was fully operational in 2013.[3]

Malargüe Station was one of the stations providing communications, tracking and data download from the Rosetta spacecraft.[4]

20kW CW High Power Amplifier (HPA) it was created by Rheinmetall Italia SpA (Italy). The monitoring and control system was implemented by Microsis srl (Italy). A 500W ASI Ka transmitter (Italian Space Agency) has been installed for Ka band transmission experiments carried out jointly with NASA. The transmitter was made by Rheinemtall Italia SpA (Italy) and Microsis srl (Italy).

References

  1. ↑ "Malargüe - DSA 3". ESA. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
  2. ↑ "Lifting of giant deep space antenna complete". ESA. 8 December 2011. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
  3. ↑ Jenny Winder (5 November 2012). "Huge new ESA tracking station is ready for duty". Phys.org. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
  4. ↑ "What's up with Rosetta?". ESA. 18 August 2014. Retrieved 18 August 2014.


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