Perspectives on Building a NASA DSN-Affiliated Antenna

Over the past several years, much effort was devoted to upgrading the 21-m antenna at the Morehead State University, Kentucky, United States and making it into an affiliated station of the NASA Deep Space Network (DSN). This paper captures perspectives on what is required to convert a non-DSN ground station into an affiliated operational node of the Deep Space Network. Key desirable characteristics of an affiliated antenna are discussed, in comparison with a typical cross support antennas from other partner space agencies. One of the foremost considerations is having common interfaces to mission users. These interfaces range from the early process of service scheduling to the final stage of delivering telemetry, tracking and command data.Beside technical considerations, this paper also examines what is required in human resources and capital investment to turn a desire of being a DSN-affiliated antenna into a reality. These resources are needed not just for the initial development of capabilities, but also for sustaining the operations and services to mission users.