Colmac Coil said it has built a specialized replacement fluid cooler for the cooling system of the 70-meter (230 feet) diameter dish antenna that is officially known as Deep Space Station 14 (nicknamed Mars antenna) that’s part of the Deep Space Network (DSN).

The company said the project was completed for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

Located at the agency’s Goldstone site near Barstow, California, the Colmac Coil fluid cooler will help cool a part of the largest and most sensitive scientific telecommunications system in the world.

The company said “The replacement fluid cooler was designed to match the exact footprint needed, the operating conditions of the Mojave Desert, and for a seamless installation on top of the pumphouse. The Fluid Cooler will cool the deionized water that circulates throughout the antenna, keeping the antenna at ideal operating conditions.” 

“This twelve-fan fluid cooler contains the largest control box ever installed on any piece of Colmac Coil equipment, allowing all the VFD controls to be mounted on the fluid cooler. Individually controlled louvers, (or louvers, controlled in pairs) were placed on both the air-entering and discharge sides of the fluid cooler. This function allows the interior of the fluid cooler to be closed off to the elements when not in use.”

NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) consists of three separate sites at Goldstone, near Barstow, California; near Madrid, Spain; and near Canberra, Australia.

The DSN is NASA’s international array of giant radio antennas that support interplanetary spacecraft communications, detect objects in space, supports interplanetary spacecraft missions, radio astronomy, radar astronomy and related observations for the exploration of the solar system and the universe.