In order to improve mission support capacity and data receiving capability of the Kashi Deep Space Station, four 35-m diameter parabolic antennas have been built and tested. They can work independently or as an array, allowing the Kashi station to support future missions by a variable number of antennas according to the mission requirement, and thereby to optimize the use of antenna resources. These four 35-m antennas have large parabolic reflector with a beam waveguide (BWG) system, and sensitive receive links with cryogenically cooled low noise amplifiers (LNAs). The array signal processing platform is developed for combing signals from several antennas to improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The single new antenna has Xband G/T value of 52.5 dB/K in average, and a total of 58 dB/K can be expected at medium elevation angles when arraying all four antennas together.

The remarkably long distances covered by deep space probes result in extremely weak downlink signals, which poses great challenges for ground measurement systems. In the current climate, improving the comprehensive utilization of downlink signal power to increase the detection distance or enhance the measurement accuracy is of great significance in deep space exploration. Facing this problem, we analyze the delta Differential One-way Range (ΔDOR) error budget of the X-band of the China Deep Space Network (CDSN). Then, we propose a novel interferometry method that detunes one group of DOR beacons and reuses the clock components of regenerative pseudo-code ranging signals for interferometry delay estimation. The primary advantage of this method is its ability to enhance the power utilization efficiency of downlink signals, thereby facilitating more efficient tracking and measurement without necessitating additional design requirements for deep space transponders. Finally, we analyze and verify the correctness and effectiveness of our proposed method using measured data from CDSN. Our results indicate that the proposed method can save approximately 13% of the downlink signal power and increase the detection distance by about 6.25% using typical modulation parameters. Furthermore, if the relative power of other signal components remains unchanged, the power of the DOR tone can be directly increased by more than 100%, improving the deep space exploration ability more significantly.

An integrated ranging and differential one-way range (DOR) signal design is implemented. The design utilizes the regenerative pseudo-noise ranging scheme and one pair of dedicated DOR tones for the deep space United X Band system. To demonstrate its effectiveness, it was applied to China’s Tianwen-1 orbiter and compared with the classic and normal designs. Using the link budget and error analysis methods, the measurement accuracy and communication ability were assessed. Results show that the novel design achieves better performance compared with that of the classic and normal designs. In the applied case, the power efficiency improved by > 30 % , two-way ranging precision improved from 0.50 to 0.09 m, and the two-way Doppler precision improved by 20% compared with those of the classic one. In addition, the spacecraft thermal noise during Delta-DOR measurements was slightly reduced. Owing to the higher downlink residual carrier, the supported telemetry data rate increased by 50%. Compared with the normal one, a higher downlink residual carrier (by 0.35 dB) was achieved by the novel design and resulted in slightly better ranging and Doppler accuracies. The novel design has a good technical foundation and is expected to be adopted in China’s future lunar and deep space explorations.