dsn
The Deep Space Network (DSN) is a collection of deep-space communication facilities operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Large parabolic antennas (34 to 70 meters in diameter) are located at three sites: Goldstone in California, near Madrid in Spain, and near Canberra in Australia. Together they maintain uninterrupted 24-hour contact with spacecraft traveling far beyond Earth orbit.
Precise timing is critical for DSN operations. Communication with a Mars probe involves a one-way light-time delay ranging from a few minutes to a little over twenty minutes, and the exact send and receive timestamps are used to determine the spacecraft's position and velocity. Each facility is equipped with hydrogen maser atomic clocks providing nanosecond-level accuracy. Relativistic time dilation corrections are applied routinely.
The three facilities are spaced roughly 120 degrees apart in longitude so that, as Earth rotates, at least one station always has line of sight to a deep-space probe. This arrangement allows seamless handovers as a spacecraft drops below the horizon at one site and rises at the next, preventing communication blackouts. Voyager 1 also remains in contact thanks to this relay of stations. In November 2026 it reaches a distance of about 25.9 billion km from Earth - a full light-day - and it keeps receding at roughly 540 million km per year, so a one-way radio signal takes on the order of a day to arrive.
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atomic clock
An atomic clock measures time by using the quantum-mechanical transition frequency of atoms as its reference, achieving accuracies on the order of one second in hundreds of millions of years and forming the backbone of modern timekeeping.
gps time
GPS Time (GPST) is the continuous time scale used internally by the Global Positioning System, originating on January 6, 1980 and never incorporating leap seconds.
time dilation
Time dilation is a phenomenon predicted by relativity in which time passes more slowly for objects moving at high speed or situated in strong gravitational fields, as observed from a stationary reference frame.
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