A Common Receiver Architecture for ESA Radio Science and Delta-DOR Support

The need to support radio science experiments and enhance navigation accuracy for the currently flying deep-space missions of the European Space Agency (ESA) has triggered the development of suitable tools in the agency´s deep-space stations. This paper describes the modifications implemented in the ESA standard receiver, the Intermediate Frequency and Modem System (IFMS), for the above goals. These modifications were possible due to the highly flexible architecture of the IFMS. Results obtained in the area of radio science research and delta differential one-way ranging tracking are also presented.