Dishing up the Data: A Decade of Space Missions

TL;DR

This paper recounts a decade of space tracking activities involving Parkes telescope, highlighting its roles in film, Mars traffic management, Titan probe data, and Apollo tape searches, emphasizing its scientific and cultural significance.

Contribution

It provides a personal and historical overview of Parkes' diverse space tracking efforts over ten years, including notable missions and cultural references.

Findings

Supported Mars traffic management in 2003/04

Aided Titan Huygens probe data collection

Participated in the search for Apollo 11 tapes

Abstract

The past decade has seen Parkes once again involved in a wide range of space tracking activities that have added to its illustrious legacy. This contribution is a personal recollection of those tracking efforts - both real and celluloid. We begin in a light-hearted vein with some behind-the-scenes views of the popular film, "The DISH", and then turn to more serious contributions; discussing the vital role of the telescope in alleviating the great "traffic jam" at Mars in 2003/04 and salvaging the Doppler Wind Experiment as the Huygens probe descended though the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, in mid-decade. We cap off the decade with a discussion of the search for the missing Apollo 11 slow-scan TV tapes.