ARLA/CLUSTER: NASA's Near Earth Network - Simulação da rede de comunicações terrestres da NASA

[João Costa > CT1FBF]

Interns create visualization of NASA space-ground communications

For the first time ever, people worldwide can get an inside look into what
it takes to enable communications for nearly 40 NASA missions, thanks to a
small team of college students.

NASA's *Near Earth Network* (NEN) leverages more than 15 antennas across
the globe to provide a downlink for critical space and Earth science data
collected by the agency's satellites. A new web-based app called *NEN
Now* shows,
in real time, simulations of the complicated maneuvers these antennas
undergo to link with passing satellites, following them from horizon to
horizon as the data streams to the ground.

"NEN Now opens a window to the public, sharing live updates about which of
NASA's spacecraft are communicating with the Near Earth Network," said
Barbara Adde, director of policy and strategic communications for the Space
Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program office at NASA Headquarters.

"Curious about what NASA is studying? You can click on a link and find out
what research that spacecraft is collecting data for and sending down to
Earth right at that moment."

Not only will NEN Now help the public understand space-to-ground
communications systems, but the tool will help technical and project
managers monitor the status of the network in detail, providing information
such as the actual position of the antennas' dishes.

At SCaN's request, Goddard modeled NEN Now after a similar app, called DSN
Now, built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, for
the Deep Space Network (DSN). The DSN provides communications services for
missions in deep space and is managed by JPL.

Ryan Turner, a ground system manager, had an idea to efficiently and
effectively develop the NEN app at Goddard by leveraging the skills of
college students and utilizing experienced engineers to provide guidance.

"We started with three interns, who worked with the public engagement team,
NEN engineers and the GMSEC to lay out a prototype,"
Turner said.

GMSEC is the Goddard Mission Services Evolution Center, which creates data
system solutions across multiple projects and disciplines. "It gave
everyone a sense of what would be possible if we created an operational
version of the system."

Naje Fields was one of the first interns on the project in summer 2015.
"Our biggest challenge for the prototype phase was to figure out how to get
the data from the real-time status server at [NASA's Wallops Flight
Facility in Virginia] to Goddard and into our app," she said. She and her
partners, Kierra Harrison and Wallace Phillips, used a number of networking
and security techniques to make it happen.

The prototype might have been ambitious for three college interns to
complete over the course of 10 weeks, but it was very well-received,
allowing Turner to establish a year-round program and to take on more
interns in the following summers.

Those groups have worked on multiple projects, including adding commercial
ground stations to NEN Now, implementing a NEN Now mobile app, designing
the Space Network (SN) Now for Goddard's other communications network, and
developing a 3D interface for NEN Now.

Both NEN Now and DSN Now have been incorporated into a larger app called
SCaN Now. An additional application for SCaN's third network, the Space
Network, is also being created by this intern team, rounding out the
real-time status display capability for all three of SCaN's communications
networks.

NEN Now is now available to the public at:

SCaN Now
https://scan-now.gsfc.nasa.gov

NeN Now
https://scan-now.gsfc.nasa.gov/nen

NeN Home
https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/heo/scan/services/networks/nen

DSN Now
https://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html

DSN Home
https://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/

Thanks NASA and ANS for the above information
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