JPL DESCANSO - Deep Space Communications and Navigation Center of Excellence

Biography

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ramona Tung

Ramona Tung received her B.S. (1992) and M.S. (1994) in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, Cambridge). At JPL in the Communications Ground Systems Section, she did simulations and analysis to support the development of the Block V Receiver and the Block III Maximum-Likelihood Convolutional Decoder (B3MCD), both of which are standard equipment at the three Deep Space Network sites. In the Communications Systems and Research Section, she did high-level telecommunications systems analysis and led the development of the Telecom Forecaster Predictor (TFP) multi-mission telecom analysis tool. TFP has supported many JPL deep-space projects, including Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), MER, MSL, and Deep Space 1.


On the MER telecom operations team, Ms. Tung was one of the two telecom analysts providing the majority of telecom support for Spirit during the prime mission, including the resolution of the Sol 18 anomaly. She has worked closely with telecom system engineers at JPL and Lockheed Martin. On MRO, she was the Mission Operations System/Ground Data System lead for Electra, the next-generation UHF proximity radio for communicating between MRO and the MER and MSL rovers. Now in the Mission Systems and Operations section, she is the Flight Operations Team lead for the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Earth-orbiter launching in 2014.


Co-Author of Chapter 7 from Volume 13 of the Deep-Space Communications and Navigation Series:

Mars Exploration Rover Telecommunications

Co-Author of the following articles of the DESCANSO Design & Performance Summary Series - Telecommunications: