jpl s vlbi project meets with international space agencies from the jpl universe april vlbi project meets with international space agencies by ed mcnevin members of jpl s space very long baseline interferometry vlbi project team recently concluded a week long series of meetings with officials from russia and japan the meetings were part of space vlbi week held at jpl in early march and were intended to maintain cooperation between international space agencies participating in the development of the u s space vlbi project a recently approved jpl flight project set for launch in u s space vlbi will utilize two earth orbiting spacecraft the japanese vsop vlbi space observing program satellite with its meter radio telescope and a russian radioastron meter satellite both spacecraft will team up with ground based radio telescopes located around the world to create a radio telescope network that astronomers hope will expand radio telescope observing power by a factor of japan s vsop satellite will use a limited six hour orbit to conduct imaging science while the russian radioastron spacecraft will exploit a larger hour earth orbit to conduct exploratory radio astronomy each satellite will point at a source target for roughly hours while approximately ground based radio telescopes will simultaneously point at the same source object while within view on earth according to dr joel smith jpl s project manager for the u s space vlbi meetings like those held at jpl will permit japan and russia who have little previous experience in radio interferometry to establish working relationships with the radio astronomy communities that will be vital during the complex observations required by the space vlbi project one of our main activities is developing the methodology for international coordination because the two spacecraft simultaneously rely on the corresponding tracking stations while using the ground based radio telescopes to observe the same celestial objects said smith three new tracking antennas are being built at dsn facilities and other three other tracking facilities located in japan russia and green bank w va this global network of ground based radio telescopes will use precision clocks and high speed recorders to collect observation data and forward the information to a correlator located at the national radio astronomy observatory in socorro n m the correlator will combine and process data then make it available to mission investigators in moscow tokyo and jpl via electronic mail smith is optimistic that the massive radio telescope created by the space vlbi network will provide radio astronomers with better resolution than has ever been achieved before by ground based radio telescopes allowing astronomers to take a closer look at distant objects in space there is a long history of radio astronomy using ground based telescopes said smith what we intend to do is to extend radio astronomy into earth orbit our goal is to look deeper into the cores of galactic nuclei quasars and other active radio sources to understand what drives those things we have seen so far with radio astronomy smith noted that if one examines the active galactic nuclei you ll find jets appearing to spew at speeds greater than light and at energy levels that are millions of times greater than you would expect he said some astronomers believe that black holes may be located in the cores of these galaxies and that they may fuel the jets smith hopes that by using space vlbi to look further into the cores this theory may be supported or disproved russian space flight hardware including transponders and transmitters are now being tested in the united states and japanese hardware is scheduled to arrive for testing later this year analysis of this hardware will permit u s scientists and engineers to understand how to modify the high speed vlba correlator operating at the nrao in order to accommodate the odd data patterns that will originate from the more than ground based radio telescopes involved in space vlbi smith is particularly pleased that meetings with the japanese and russian space agency officials like those held at jpl in march have proceeded smoothly yet he knows that the political uncertainty in russia could jeopardize that country s participation in the project nothing is ever smooth he said but the russians have been incredibly open with us we always anticipated some likelihood that we will not succeed because of political factors beyond our control yet there tends to be a way of keeping these things going because scientists on both sides are trying hard and people recognize the value of cooperation at this level smith points out that the japanese space agency has more at stake than just fulfilling an international commitment to a science mission the japanese have been extremely cooperative since international cooperation is essential to their science mission he said but smith also noted that japanese space agency officials look at the u s space vlbi mission as an opportunity to showcase the technology involved with vsop spacecraft and their highly regarded mach v launch vehicle yet regardless of the risks involved in undertaking such an ambitious project jpl s smith is satisfied that planning for the space vlbi project is beyond the significant financial and political hurdles that otherwise might threaten the project fortunately we have the virtue of having two partners and if either falls out we would still have something with the other by themselves both spacecraft are independent scientifically exciting missions ron baalke baalke kelvin jpl nasa gov jet propulsion lab m s telos the aweto from new zealand pasadena ca is part caterpillar and part vegetable
