NASA Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex
Canberra, Australia
After deciding that the remote Woomera site was not ideal for a deep space tracking station, the search began for an alternative site. By the 1960s the growth of the National Capital was considered to be occurring at too slow a pace and pressure was placed on the Australian Government to remedy the situation. The decision was made to locate a new tracking station in the Australian Capital Territory in an effort to promote growth in the region.
The Tidbinbilla valley, 35km south-west of Canberra, was chosen due to its close proximity to a growing city, with the surrounding ridges helping to shield it from unwanted radio interference.
Construction of the complex began in June 1963 with operations commencing in December 1964, in time to support the Mariner 4 spacecraft encounter with Mars. The centrepiece of the complex was the 26-metre antenna (Deep Space Station 42). Two years later a crewed spaceflight wing was added to the complex to assist with the Apollo missions to the Moon. By 1970 the complex featured a power station, and facilities to manage the sewage and water supplies, while a cafeteria, and sleeping accommodation fed and housed the many workers on site. During early 1969 construction started on a new antenna. At 73 metres in height and weighing more than seven million kilograms, the then 64-metre antenna (Deep Space Station 43) took nearly four years to complete. The need for such an antenna was brought about by the increasing amounts of data received and the rapidly expanding distances that spacecraft were travelling. The new 64-metre antenna was more than six times as sensitive as the existing 26-metre antenna, and therefore could extend the useful lifetime of a spacecraft as its signal became weaker the further it was from Earth.
Nearest Airport: YSCB Canberra Airport
To find the complex:
Runway 17, fly runway heading until clear of field, then fly heading 235 for approximately 21km. It is just over the ridge.
Hope you enjoy!
As always, extract the "zipped" folder into your community folder.
Peace and Joy,
Christopher
PS: if you have We Love VFR, make sure that this scenery loads after WLV in order for my exclusion rectangles to replace their antennas.
Great you could propose that to us !
2 years ago
droide
I deleted the content.xml file, and installed your latest version. I'm still getting one duplicate, the most southerly antenna, and looking at the screenshots, I'm still getting the default buildings. I can't post screenshots here that i can see but I can send them to you if you like.
2 years ago
I didn't put an exclusion rectangles around all the telescopes because many are deactivated and being taken down (however, I know you said "double"....which after my latest update (0.6.0). As for the buildings, I did not exclude them yet because I have not made models for them. Those will come in subsequent versions. Have ever, I will continue to investigate any anomalies and make corrections. I probably wait until after SU10, just in case there are bigger issues to fix once it rolls. Thank you for bringing all this to my attention.
2 years ago
Areographer
nojwod
I redid the exclusion rectangles to take care of duplicate telescopes. Be sure that your content.xml is recreated in your local>Microsoft Flight Simulator>packages folder as well.
2 years ago
Areographer
Hi nice scenery but with stock MSFS and the Australia update installed I'm getting double antennas, so I'm wondering if there's an exclude missing?
2 years ago
No, my exclusion polys are present, but I will investigate! I think I know what is going on. I had the same issue with my Pyramid scenery and how Asobo draws an area. If I am right, I will make an update.
2 years ago
Areographer
nojwod
PS: if you have We Love VFR, make sure that this scenery loads after WLV in order for my exclusion rectangles to replace their antennas.
What does mean and how is it done?
2 years ago
A few ways really. 1 Using "Addon Linker" addon or some equivalent 2. renaming the package folder of the scenery to start with a "z" (or whatever letter puts it after), however I do not recommend this method. and 3. editing the content.xml in your Roaming>Microsoft Flight Simulator folder and making sure the scenery is below the scenery your are trying to supercede. Problem with #2 is that you can accidentally make the package not work if not done correctly....plus if you rely on "us" creator, then we would have to know EVERY package that is in our area (huge pain), and if every creator uses a "z", well, we are not really fixing the issue...IMHO.
2 years ago
Areographer
conjola31