NASA Prepares for the Moon and Mars with Expanded Deep Space Network

NASA is adding a new antenna for communicating with the agency’s farthest-flung robotic spacecraft. Part of the Deep Space Network (DSN), the 112-foot-wide (34-meter-wide) antenna dish represents a future in which more missions will require advanced technology such as lasers capable of transmitting vast amounts of data from astronauts on the Martian surface. As part of its Artemis program, NASA will send the first woman and next man to the Moon by 2024, applying lessons learned there to send astronauts to Mars.