Session
Technical Session II: Mission Operations
Abstract
At NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), we are reengineering Project Operations Control Centers (POCCs) based on workstation network technologies and lessons learned from the current complex Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) mission and the impending generation of low-cost satellites such as the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer-Earth Probe (TOMS-EP) mission. UARS is supported in a multimission institutional environment by Concurrent Computer Corporation computers; TOMS-EP is supported independently by networked workstations using embedded processing techniques tailored to small systems. To maintain data continuity until follow-on instruments can be launched, NASA wants to extend the UARS mission (currently in its fourth year of operation) until the year 2002 and expects to extend the TOMS-EP mission, designed for 2 years of operation, to 5 years. The relocation of UARS mission operations to the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) building, in the same mission operations room with the TOMSEP mission, offers a unique opportunity. We can evaluate these two disparate systems with the goal of reducing extended lifespan operational costs without increasing risks to the spacecraft or compromising data to the scientists. This paper addresses postlaunch life-cycle costs, plans for extended UARS mission operations, increased automation of TOMS-EP, cost savings from shared UARS/TOMS-EP mission resources, and application of lessons learned to new spacecraft mission operations.
UARS and TOMS-EP Project Operations Control Centers Collocated and Reengineered
At NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), we are reengineering Project Operations Control Centers (POCCs) based on workstation network technologies and lessons learned from the current complex Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) mission and the impending generation of low-cost satellites such as the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer-Earth Probe (TOMS-EP) mission. UARS is supported in a multimission institutional environment by Concurrent Computer Corporation computers; TOMS-EP is supported independently by networked workstations using embedded processing techniques tailored to small systems. To maintain data continuity until follow-on instruments can be launched, NASA wants to extend the UARS mission (currently in its fourth year of operation) until the year 2002 and expects to extend the TOMS-EP mission, designed for 2 years of operation, to 5 years. The relocation of UARS mission operations to the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) building, in the same mission operations room with the TOMSEP mission, offers a unique opportunity. We can evaluate these two disparate systems with the goal of reducing extended lifespan operational costs without increasing risks to the spacecraft or compromising data to the scientists. This paper addresses postlaunch life-cycle costs, plans for extended UARS mission operations, increased automation of TOMS-EP, cost savings from shared UARS/TOMS-EP mission resources, and application of lessons learned to new spacecraft mission operations.
