Recommendations to Improve Extended Mission Operations for Small Satellites
Abstract
After the high tempo activities of commissioning and mission objective execution, satellite mission operations campaigns tend to settle into a slower rhythm of everyday tasks. At the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), this often leads to a loss of personnel, forcing changes to the mission operations team and processes. An excess of personnel loss and resulting change can lead to a source of operational risk. In this paper, risk mitigation techniques to maintain operational rigor as operations tempo and crew manning evolve over a satellite mission's lifetime are assessed. At AFRL, small satellite programs often use part-time operators and assign multiple roles to crew members. This can be a strength at the beginning of a mission, as it informs the crew about the whole system from ground to satellite, increasing team awareness of the entire mission. However, as team numbers dwindle, roles are even further consolidated, causing the team to lose redundancy and collective expertise. Small satellite programs would benefit from the early development of long-use ops plans that mitigate these factors. In this paper, crew schedules from multiple small satellite programs are analyzed to derive a relationship between practical crew experience and mission phase complexity over time. The data is then used to inform tailored recommendations for small satellite programs to reduce operational risk by implementing processes for discipline, refresher training, and needed changes in team composition.
Recommendations to Improve Extended Mission Operations for Small Satellites
Utah State University, Logan, UT
After the high tempo activities of commissioning and mission objective execution, satellite mission operations campaigns tend to settle into a slower rhythm of everyday tasks. At the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), this often leads to a loss of personnel, forcing changes to the mission operations team and processes. An excess of personnel loss and resulting change can lead to a source of operational risk. In this paper, risk mitigation techniques to maintain operational rigor as operations tempo and crew manning evolve over a satellite mission's lifetime are assessed. At AFRL, small satellite programs often use part-time operators and assign multiple roles to crew members. This can be a strength at the beginning of a mission, as it informs the crew about the whole system from ground to satellite, increasing team awareness of the entire mission. However, as team numbers dwindle, roles are even further consolidated, causing the team to lose redundancy and collective expertise. Small satellite programs would benefit from the early development of long-use ops plans that mitigate these factors. In this paper, crew schedules from multiple small satellite programs are analyzed to derive a relationship between practical crew experience and mission phase complexity over time. The data is then used to inform tailored recommendations for small satellite programs to reduce operational risk by implementing processes for discipline, refresher training, and needed changes in team composition.
