ET Call Home
- February 3, 2009
- Rated 4 of 5 by
Poole Party from everywhere, Virginia
Driving onto the grounds of this complex is like driving onto the movie set of Contact or one of those moves about contacting space - huge satellite dishes. I'm not talking about the dishes hanging off your rooftops, but HUGE dishes, bigger than your house poised and ready to pick up signals.
This is an acive complex, tracking and recording results from Mars Surveyor spacecraft, Cassini, Galileo and Ulyssess space exploration projects. It provides a link with NASA spacecraft. The center itself is home to displays and interactive equipment and allows you to see the latest images from Mars. The small gift shop and cafe sells astronaut food and knick knacks.
A small playground and picnic areas to enjoy. Probably a good hour or two enjoyed here, plus a nice 20 minute drive from Canberra.
This is open daily from 9am to 5pm. Entry is free.
www.cdss.nasa.gov
From journal Things to Do around Canberra
Canberra Deep Space Communications Center
- January 4, 2001
- Rated 2 of 5 by
Quan from Seattle, Washington
Though I have expected that satellite stations are located in areas with no interference, it is still a shock to drive through the bushlands, with beautiful eucaplytus trees and sightings of kangaroos, to come upon the Canberra Deep Space Communications Center, with its four giant satellite antennae. We learned that this complex is one of the three tracking stations in earth linked to the Deep Space control center, an arm of NASA, and that the antennaes relay signals from NASA to the orbiting satellites. The tour book also informed us that this station was the first to receive the first pictures of men walking on the moon.
From journal Canberra - the gentle Australian Capital