Malargüe—A satellite dish best served cold: Cryogenic upgrade boosts capacity by almost 80%

In late July 2024, the Malargüe deep-space communication station completed an important upgrade of its antenna feed that will allow missions to send much more data back to Earth, a capacity increase of almost 80%.

With more deep-space missions, more international requests, new and more intense data streams, the demand for deep-space ground stations has never been higher. Yet the offer is reaching nearly full capacity. To give a breath of air to the three deep-space antennas in its global ground station network (Estrack), the European Space Agency started a vast upgrade of its stations, including the use of novel cryogenic technology.

In late July, the program completed the cryogenic works on its Argentina-based Malargüe antenna, thus allowing the station to download up to 80% more science data from its increasingly complex science missions, with a boost of up to 60% for deep-space missions like Juice and BepiColombo.

The completion of the upgrade will alleviate operational capacity demands for ESA missions in the coming years, while also providing new capabilities for future missions.

How does it work? When receiving a signal and decoding it, antennas can be affected by background interference—or thermal noise—that limits their sensitivity and data transfer rate. One way to reduce this noise is to cryo-cool the link connecting the physical antenna to the station's electronic signal transmitter and receiver—also called the "antenna feed."

"Increasing the signal-to-noise ratio is key when designing, upgrading and operating antennas," explains Stéphane Halté, ESA ground station project manager.

"At a temperature of 10 Kelvin (-263°C) instead of room temperature, we can reduce the noise to a minimum and increase the antenna's capacity by between 60 and 80%."

The new cryocooled feeds incorporate a new generation of ultra-low noise cryogenic amplifiers (LNA) developed with university partners such as ETH Zurich (Switzerland) and Chalmers (Sweden). These LNAs are now commercialized through spin-off companies (LNF and Diramics).

The same technology is used today for the development of quantum computers. This is an example where ESA technology development can support the overall scientific community and support the competitiveness of European companies.

The Ka band cryocooled feed development has been funded through the ESA Technology Development Element program and the first prototype was manufactured and tested by Callisto Space (France). The operational units have been manufactured by Callisto and the integration has been performed in ESA's Deep Space stations by the Canadian company Calian.

Malargüe is the second antenna to have been upgraded with cryocooled feeds. It follows the path of Cerebros in 2023. This cryogenic technology is now a standard for ESA ground stations and the new antennas, like the New Norcia 3 one, will feature it.