PDS logoPlanetary Data System
PDS Information
Find a Node - Use these links to navigate to any of the 8 publicly accessible PDS Nodes.

This bar indicates that you are within the PDS enterprise which includes 6 science discipline nodes and 2 support nodes which are overseen by the Project Management Office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). Each node is led by an expert in the subject discipline, supported by an advisory group of other practitioners of that discipline, and subject to selection and approval under a regular NASA Research Announcement.
Click here to return to the Photojournal Home Page Click here to view a list of Photojournal Image Galleries Photojournal_inner_header
Latest Images  |  Spacecraft & Technology  |  Animations  |  Space Images App  |  Feedback  |  Photojournal Search  

PIA13271: Checking for Even Surfaces
An engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., checks the evenness of sole plates installed on the giant 'Mars antenna' at NASA's Deep Space Network communications site in Goldstone, Calif.
 Target Name:  Earth
 Mission:  Goldstone Deep Space Network (DSN) 
 Instrument:  Deep Space Network Antenna 
 Product Size:  3648 x 2736 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  JPL 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA13271.tif (29.94 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA13271.jpg (946.6 kB)  

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

Tim Sink, an engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., checks the evenness of sole plates installed on the giant "Mars antenna" at NASA's Deep Space Network communications site in Goldstone, Calif. The sole plates are part of a hydrostatic bearing assembly that enables the antenna to turn horizontally. The work is part of a major surgery on the giant, 70-meter-wide (230-foot-wide) antenna. The sole plates, and the steel runner segments that will be placed on them, need to lie flat for the bearing to work properly. The laser leveling was done at night to ensure that the sole plates are not deformed, even a tiny amount, by expansion of the steel from heating caused by the exposure to sunlight.

This image was taken on July 8, 2010.

While officially dubbed Deep Space Station 14, the antenna picked up the Mars name from its first task: tracking the Mariner 4 spacecraft, which had been lost by smaller antennas after its historic flyby of Mars.

For more information about the Deep Space Network, visit http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Image Addition Date:
2010-07-15