DELTA-SIERRA MARS TOOL
Simplified Earth–Mars link-budget calculator
Understand why distance and frequency strongly affect an interplanetary link.
Essential answer
Free-space path loss grows with distance and frequency. Antenna gain offsets part of that loss, but received power alone does not guarantee a data rate.
Every value is editable. Scenario values are not an official NASA architecture.
Calculator
Method and limitations
This is only a power budget. A real DSN link analysis also treats system noise temperature, bandwidth, modulation/coding, C/N₀, Eb/N₀, margins, and availability. Prefilled gains and losses are editable scenarios.
Primary sources and evidence status
The calculation distinguishes physical relation, demonstrated value, standard, educational assumption, and Delta-Sierra scenario.
- JPL Deep Space Network — Telecommunications Link Design Handbook 810-005
Primary DSN technical handbook. This calculator stops at a simplified received-power budget and does not replace a full noise/SNR/data-rate link analysis.
Sources and further reading
Downloadable scenario data
Dataset v1.1 documents every prefilled value: unit, system boundary, time basis, evidence status, and source when one exists.
Entry, descent and landing (EDL)
- Mars entry, descent and landing: understanding the full EDL chain
- Mars atmospheric entry: heat shield, entry corridor and guidance
- Mars parachutes and supersonic retropropulsion: where architecture changes
- Terrain-relative navigation, hazards and Mars landing-site selection
- Terminal descent, engine plumes and the Mars landing zone
- Human Mars lander: the EDL problem above 20 tonnes
Survive: ECLSS, health and resilience
- Mars habitat ECLSS: complete architecture of survival loops
- Mars habitat air: oxygen, CO₂, humidity and contaminants
- Mars water: 98% recovery, storage, quality and make-up
- Fire, depressurization and refuge: surviving habitat emergencies
- Mars radiation: shielding, dose and storm shelter
- Spacesuits, EVA and dust: working outside without contaminating the base
- Food, crops and medicine: biological and medical autonomy on Mars
- Psychology, fatigue and multiple failures: human resilience of a Mars base
Operations, industry, reliability and team
- Choosing a site and deploying a Mars base
- Mars surface mobility, robotics and logistics
- Mars ISRU industry, construction and local manufacturing
- Reliability, redundancy and common causes in a Mars base
- Durability, tightness, electronics and FDIR on Mars
- Mars maintenance, spares, qualification and configuration
- Crew operations, procedures and Earth-Mars communications
- Human factors, anomalies and training for a Mars team