A Bronto S230XDT aerial platform was recently delivered to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's facility in Goldstone to enable inspection and maintenance of high-tech antennas.
JPL operates three antenna tracking complexes around the world to communicate with far-flung messengers. The antennas and equipment at these three complexes make up the Deep Space Network, or DSN. One of the complexes is in Goldstone, California, in the Mojave Desert, outside of Canberra, Australia and one is outside of Madrid, Spain. The three complexes are located approximately 120 degrees apart in longitude, so that as the Earth rotates, one set of antennas is always in view of the spacecraft.
Bronto aerial platforms for antenna maintenance
At each complex there are multiple antennas that have a reflector 112 feet in diameter and one antenna that is 230m in diameter. These large antennas present a maintenance challenge, to easily get staff up and down the structures to service and maintain the critical equipment.
JPL has two Bronto Skylift aerial platforms to assist with this work, one at the Canberra Australia complex and a newly delivered unit at the Goldstone, California complex. California has strict limitation to vehicle axle weights and the S230XDT's configuration was tailored to fulfill local regulation through collaboration with the local dealer Excel High Reach Inc, the chassis manufacturer and the end customer.
JPL's new Bronto is a S230XDT aerial mounted on a Mack chassis. The S230XDT features a 230 foot working height, a 118 foot horizontal outreach and 1500 pounds of maximum load in the working cage. Optional equipment includes power outlets in the cage, various working and warning lights, a wireless intercom between the cage and the turntable and a 360-degree continuous rotation of the turntable.
The units provide access up and over the end of the bowl-shaped reflector and then use the last section of the mast in a horizontal condition to access the microwave equipment that is located near the centre of the dish.
The antennas regularly communicate with the two Voyager spacecraft outside of the solar system, with the New Horizons spacecraft that went past Pluto, the Juno spacecraft orbiting Jupiter, with the multiple spacecraft and landers at Mars, with the Parker Solar Probe orbiting the Sun and many others.
