GOLDSTONE TOUR
Introduction | Pioneer Site | Apollo Site
Gemini Site | Mars Site | Signal Processing Center

<img src="images/mars01.jpg" alt="Still Image from Mars QTVR Spin" width="555" height="289" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0"><BR><I>An interactive tour of the Mars Site can be viewed using <A HREF="http://www.apple.com/quicktime" TARGET="_blank">QuickTime</A>.</I>

Mars Site
Standing 24 stories tall, the Mars antenna is the largest dish at Goldstone. It was originally built as a 64-meter-diameter (210-foot) antenna and received its first signal from the Mariner 4 mission to Mars.

By 1988, the Mars dish, along with the 64-meter antennas in Spain and Australia, was upgraded to 70 meters (230 feet). These 70-meter antennas increase the receiving power of the Deep Space Network.

The Mars antenna's immense diameter allows it to be the most sensitive of any equipment at Goldstone. It communicates regularly with spacecraft at Mars and others across the solar system. The Mars antenna also communicates with Voyager 1, which is over 16 billion kilometers (10 billion miles) away from Earth and the most distant humanmade object in the universe. The antennna's structure alone, without the concrete pedestal, weighs about 2.7 million kilograms (2,970 tons).

To the right of the Mars dish, the 34-meter (111-foot) Uranus antenna is visible.