jacobgold

Given the extreme range you're dealing with, what is the maximum data rate available to you via the DSN? What frequency and modulation are you using, and how did you decide on a balance between bit error rate and bandwidth?

Thanks for taking the time to answer questions. Thats an almost unbelievably high data rate considering the distance. As for being able to double the data rate at high elevation angles, does that mean that the spacecraft is programmed to change its transmit rate throughout a pass? And if so, thats incredible that even with light delay and the planet spinning (and what I assume is very very small half power beamwidths) that the data rate can still be so high with a decent link margin.

Edit: Back of the napkin math says your free space path loss is around 287dB. Thats insane.