JPL contribution to the VSOP mission Original Research Article

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a participant in the VSOP Space VLBI mission, an extensive international collaboration led by Japanʹs Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS). The JPL effort is funded by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). To obtain data from the orbital element of the VSOP mission, the Japanese HALCA satellite, the Deep Space Network (DSN) of JPL has built a new set of three 11-meter tracking stations in California, Spain, and Australia. These stations have supported over 1000 HALCA passes during the first year of operation, and supply science, telemetry, and Doppler data for the mission. JPL is using the Doppler data to estimate the satellite orbital parameters that are needed by the tracking stations and VLBI data correlators. The DSN also modified their three 70-meter antennas to provide ground VLBI observing support for the mission. In addition to operational support, JPL has had significant involvement in the mission planning and scientific support aspects of the mission, including mission design, international data flow, scientific scheduling, and data analysis during in-orbit checkout. JPL has also aided the scientific community in the use of VSOP by developing a user software package, writing a guide for proposers, and establishing a proposer help desk.