Usuda Deep Space Center is a facility of the

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency The is the Japanese national air and space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and launch of satellites into orb ...

. It is a spacecraft tracking station in

Saku, Nagano is a city located in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 99,131 in 41,522 households, and a population density of 230 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Saku is located in east-central ...

, opened in October, 1984. The main features of the station are two large

beam waveguide antenna A beam waveguide antenna is a particular type of antenna dish, at which waveguides are used to transmit the radio beam between the large steerable dish and the equipment for reception or transmission, like e.g. RF power amplifiers. Principle of ...

s, an older 64 meter antenna and a newer 54 meter dish. Usuda was the first deep-space antenna constructed with beam-waveguide technology. Although this construction dramatically simplifies installation and maintenance of electronics, it was previously thought to offer poor noise performance. However, after the U.S.

Jet Propulsion Lab The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States. Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA an ...

(JPL) tested this antenna and found the noise performance was better than its conventional 64-meter antennas, it too switched to this method of construction for all subsequent antennas of their

Deep Space Network The NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) is a worldwide Telecommunications network, network of American spacecraft communication ground segment facilities, located in the United States (California), Spain (Madrid), and Australia (Canberra), that suppo ...

(DSN). Because the 64 meter antenna is aging and is still in use over ten years after its designed service life, JAXA has built a new antenna nearby. Similar huge antennas are used by the deep space networks of the

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, and

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Misasa Deep Space Station

This new antenna had the name GREAT (Ground Station for Deep Space Exploration and Telecommunication) during the construction. It is 54 meters in diameter and has an adaptive surface with high accuracy and efficiency, and hence is capable of working at the higher Ka-band frequencies. This will increase the potential data throughput despite the smaller size. Misasa Deep Space Station is now the world's most sensitive Antenna for Ka-band communication worldwide. It is located 1.3 km from Usuda and is also administrated and maintained by the Usuda Deep Space Center.

Public Access Classification

*General public: Observation of exterior installation and access to exhibition room *Special access: None specified. (An explanation of the UDSC communications are conducted during special public access events conducted by

Sagamihara Campus Sagamihara Campus is a facility of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture. Gallery file:ISAS Sagamihara Campus Gate.jpg, Entrance gate file:M-3SII exhibition model.jpg, M-3SII launch vehicle file:M-V ...

). *Research Utilization: National Cooperative Research Institute, National University Cooperative Research Institute, International Cooperative Research Institute (access via the Space Sciences Research Institute)

References

Space program of Japan Space technology research institutes {{space-stub