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\nThis 32-metre antenna is undergoing an important transformation. Soon, it will be ready to communicate with spacecraft across deep space.\n<\/p>\n
\nIf you\u2019re planning on flying a robotic or even human mission in the near future to the Moon, an asteroid or even Mars, one indispensable requirement you\u2019ll face is the need for at least one deep-space tracking dish to communicate with your craft.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe Goonhilly 6 antenna is part of the Goonhilly ground station<\/a>\u00a0in Cornwall, England, home to over 60 dishes able to track satellites close to home, in highly elliptical orbits as well as planetary and celestial objects further afield.\n<\/p>\n \nBuilt in 1985, the antenna will be upgraded to provide fast data links for missions far beyond Earth, typically exceeding 2 million km.\n<\/p>\n \nESA currently has three deep-space dishes in Australia, Spain and Argentina, providing full sky coverage for tracking and communicating with missions at Mars such as ExoMars and Mars Express as well as BepiColombo – currently on its way to Mercury. Future ESA missions such as Solar Orbiter, Euclid and Cheops will soon be added to this list.\n<\/p>\n \nHowever, by the middle of the next decade, ESA\u2019s deep-space communication needs for its current and upcoming missions is expected to exceed present capacity by around half.\n<\/p>\n \nThis is why ESA teams are excited by the upgrade of Goonhilly 6, which will enable the UK station to provide Europe\u2019s first commercial deep-space tracking services, compliment ESA\u2019s own ESTRACK<\/a> stations and provide deep-space tracking for both space agencies and private business.\n<\/p>\n