{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.011586452762923352, 'fraction_numerical': 0.004456327985739751, 'mean_word_length': 5.380681818181818, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
A Decade of Advancements in Spacecraft Communications Technology at APL

The past decade has seen a rapid transition of new spacecraft communications technology into flight programs at APL. Key technologies have been transitioned from concept to flight implementation on a timescale as short as4 years, resulting in considerable benefits to flight missions. The science return of the MESSENGER mission to Mercury has been doubled through the infusion of circularly polarized waveguide antenna technology. The New Horizons mission to Pluto has been enabled through the development of a low-power digital receiver that has reduced power consumption by 70% relative to current command receiver technologies. The distance over which the New Horizons mission can precisely perform Earth-to-spacecraft ranging has been extended by a factor of 10, enabling a medium-gain antenna to be used for routine ranging operations out to Pluto and beyond. These accomplishments and others have been realized in part by the close coupling between communication systems engineering and technology development within the APL Space Department.