Pluto Fast Flyby Uplink Radioscience Instrument Design and Prototype Implementation

Implement radio occultation measurements of Pluto's atmosphere based on well-established and understood physical and engineering principles. It requires a radical change in approach over recent and current missions.

  • Transmission from ground, reception on spacecraft.
  • Shared use of spacecraft telecommunications receiver for science and engineering services.
  • Implementation of low mass and low power ultra stable oscillator (USO) utilizing Tactical BVA resonator technology.
  • Implementation of low mass and low power, efficient DSP unit.

    Responsibilities

  • STAR Laboratory, Stanford University: Lead effort and SPU development.
  • Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University: Tactical BVA oscillator technology.
  • Jet Propulsion Laboratories: Spacecraft radio and Deep Space Network (DSN) uplink.

    Stanford PFF Team

  • G. Leonard Tyler
  • Ivan R. Linscott
  • Bilal Ahmad
  • Yi-Hsiu Wang
  • Robert G. Lorenz

    Last update: 11 April 1996
    ahmad@nova.stanford.edu