Lord Frederick Leighton Leighton Idyll painting

Lord Frederick Leighton Leighton Idyll painting
Steve Hanks Comfort in Solitude painting

NASA is bracing for a flood of radio signals as more than 25 spacecraft exploring the solar system all phone home.
With Japan, Europe and the United States all launching probes to Mars and other destinations, the stress on the web of antennas tuned to space will only increase, scientists say.The crunch time will be during late 2003 and early 2004, when many of the missions reach crucial points in their journeys, according to NASA. 'More Than We Can Support'"The sum of all the missions is more than we can support," says Rich Miller, head of planning and commitments for the Deep Space Network, the part of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., that manages the network.