4. System Overview
d. Earth Station :
The satellite will relay the information from the observatory to the Earth via Deep Space Network (DSN) earth stations. The DSN is an international network of earth stations that supports interplanetary spacecraft missions, and radio astronomy observations for the exploration of the solar system and the universe. The DSN consists of three earth stations that are located about 120 degrees apart around the world which provides an all-the time coverage for reception of the signals. The earth stations are located in Goldstone/California, Madrid/Spain and Canberra/Australia. The antennas of the DSN are 34 meter diameter high efficiency dish antennas.
Figure 8 : DSN 34-meter dish antennas.