Availability of the DSN Telemetry Data System and Its Major Elements, Including the TWM Assemblies

Abstract

The DSN discrepancy report system which records all outages of DSN data systems that occur during mission support operations is described. The recorded outages of the telemetry data system for 1981 through 1983 were tabulated and availability characteristics of the telemetry data system and several of its major elements, including the traveling wave maser (TWM) Assemblies were developed. Availability characteristics of the TWM assemblies are compared with those of other DSN subsystems and assemblies. It is found that for a three year period, the availability of the telemetry data system is 99.0%, and its mean time to restore service is 0.9 hours; the availability of the TWM assemblies is 99.83%, and their mean time to restore service is 2.5 hours.