The ESA station maintenance team of Deep Space Antenna 3 (Malargüe, Argentine) has received support from Callisto for the preventive maintenance of the X-Band cryogenicUltra Low Noise Amplifiers (LNAs).
The cryogenic Ultra Low Noise amplifiers are used to amplify the signal coming from ESA spacecraft and will support the forthcoming Gaia mission (launch planned in December 2013).
In addition to the maintenance support, the DSA3 staff have received a training course from Callisto. The course has been well received by the attendees who enjoyed both detailed theoretical and practical lessons on cryogenic LNA systems for their operations and maintenance.
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With future exploration missions like Gaia (http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Gaia), BepiColombo and Juice set to deliver massive amounts of scientific data, ESA's trio of deep-space tracking antennas needed an upgrade.
The 35 m-diameter dishes in Australia, Spain and Argentina use cryogenic cooling to communicate via X-band microwave frequencies.
This enables communications at immense distances out to about 750 million km - equivalent to the distance from the Sun to Jupiter.