What does a satellite do on a space probe?

You know, the thing that looks like a satellite dish, but on a space probe.|||That's a dish antenna, just like your home satellite dish. The dish is a shape called a paraboloid, and it has the useful property that all radiation coming in directly from the front will be reflected toward the paraboloid's focus. At the focus is the actual electronic device for detecting the radio waves. For instance, the dish on your house has that arm sticking out the front, holding a gadget at its end. That gadget is the detector. What the dish does is provide a large area for collecting the waves, to give the antenna a stronger signal.|||That isn't a satellite, it is an antenna. It's used to send and receive data between the probe and Earth. Satellites are objects in orbit around a planet, such as the International Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope. They both have antennae, by the way. Space probes travel to other objects in the solar system and beyond, and normally don't orbit planets.|||Signal Detection





See also:





Project Argus detections





Moonhounce signal detection


Interesting SETI@home signals