Ein generisches Konzept für Planung und Betrieb von wissenschaftlichen Operationen planetarer Missionen und dessen Referenzimplementierung für die erste Mondmission der ESA, SMART-1

Die Raumsonde einer interplanetaren Mission kann in zwei Hauptgruppen von Subsystemen unterteilt werden: den Satellitenbus und die wissenschaftliche Nutzlast. Diese Unterscheidung spiegelt sich gleichermaßen in der Aufteilung der Verantwortlichkeiten im Bodensegment der planetaren Missionen der Europäischen Raumfahrtorganisation ESA wieder. Als Beispiele für planetare Missionen der ESA können die SMART-1, MarsExpress, VenusExpress, Rosetta und die BepiColombo Missionen genannt werden. Das wissenschaftliche Operationszentrum SOC der jeweiligen Mission hat die Verantwortung für die Planung der Operationen aller wissenschaftlichen Nutzlastinstrumente. Im Rahmen der vorliegenden Dissertation wurden die Abläufe des wissenschaftlichen Planungsprozesses im SOC systematisch analysiert, vorhandene Planungskonzepte verglichen und im Hinblick auf eine wissenschaftsorientierte Planung kritisch überprüft. Die wissenschaftsorientierte Planung ist durch konkrete und anschauliche Einbeziehung wissenschaftlicher Ziele einer Mission in die praktischen Planungs- und Entscheidungsprozesse charakterisiert. In diesem Zusammenhang wurde ein generisches Konzept für wissenschaftliche Operationsplanung ausgearbeitet, welches den Namen „Zentrales Planungskonzept“ trägt. Der Kern dieses Konzepts liegt in der Konfliktvermeidung während des Planungsprozesses statt Konfliktlösung durch spätere Iterationen. Ein wesentlicher Bestandteil dieses Konzepts ist die Erfassung aller planungsrelevanten Daten in einer zentralen Wissensdatenbank sowie die Ausarbeitung eines hierarchischen Netzwerkes der wissenschaftlichen Missionsziele. Eine umfassende wissenschaftliche Analyse basierend auf einer detaillierten Missionssimulation ermöglicht in diesem Konzept, alle Zeitfenster zu identifizieren, welche eine potenzielle Gelegenheit für das Erreichen einer der Missionsziele darstellen. Durch den direkten Zusammenhang zwischen den angeforderten Operationen respektive den dafür identifizierten Zeitfenstern und den wissenschaftlichen Zielen der Mission kann die wissenschaftliche Auswertung viel anschaulicher in die Planungs- und Entscheidungsprozesse einbezogen werden. Das zentrale Planungskonzept reduziert erheblich den Planungsaufwand durch das Eliminieren von zeitaufwendigen Iterationen und ermöglicht somit eine schnelle Umplanung bei unvorhergesehenen Änderungen. Die praktische Umsetzung des vorgestellten zentralen Planungskonzepts wurde im Rahmen dieser Dissertation in Form einer Operationsplanungssoftware namens SOPS für die erste europäische Mondmission SMART-1 implementiert. Das SMART-1 SOPS ist eine auf Java EE Technologie basierte Server-Client Anwendung. Sie besteht aus zwei Hauptkomponenten: der zentralen Wissensdatenbank mit dazugehörigen web-basierten Clientanwendungen und der wissenschaftlichen Missionsanalyse- und Planungssoftware. Die Grundzüge des zentralen Planungskonzepts wurden durch den Einsatz von SOPS als das primere Planungssystem für die wissenschaftlichen Operationen der SMART-1 Mission im operationellen Betrieb erfolgreich umgesetzt. Die im Rahmen dieser Dissertation eingeführte Implementierung des zentralen Planungskonzeptes, basierend auf der praktischen Erfahrung der SMART-1 Mission, bildet die Grundlage des wissenschaftlichen Planungskonzepts für die Rosetta und BepiColumbo Missionen der ESA.The subsystems of an interplanetary spacecraft can be broken down in two categories: The satellite platform and the scientific payload instruments. The same breakdown is reflected in the distribution of the tasks and responsibilities in the ground segment of the planetary missions of the European Space Agency. Examples for ESA planetary missions are the SMART-1, MarsExpress, VenusExpress, Rosetta and the BepiColombo missions. The Science Operation Centre, SOC, of a planetary mission is responsible for the planning of the operations of all scientific payload instruments on board the spacecraft. The present dissertation provides a systematic analysis of the science operations planning process in the SOC. It compares existing planning concepts and highlights their advantages and shortcomings with regard to science driven planning. Science driven planning is characterised through concrete and transparent incorporation of the scientific objectives of a mission in the practical science operation planning process. A generic science operation planning concept has been devised in the context of the present dissertation, which is referred to as the central science operation planning concept. The centralised science operations planning concept aims at conflict avoidance as early as possible in the planning process, rather than conflict resolution in later stages. It eliminates the unnecessary iteration cycles and reduces the required planning time and effort. It shifts the planning interfaces between the payload teams and the science operation centre towards more scientific interfaces. The three main elements of the centralised science operation planning concept can be stated to be - Centralised repository for all relevant science planning information; - Centralised science opportunity analysing and identification of all available science opportunity windows during a planning period - Centralised science opportunity selection (planning) based on scientific criteria and trade-off analysis In this concept the establishment of a hierarchical network of scientific objectives of the mission and the provision of the corresponding generic observation requests by the payload teams are essential for the implementation of the central science opportunity analysis and science-driven planning. The SMART-1 science operation planning system, SOPS, has been the first implementation of this generic planning concept for an ESA planetary mission. It has been designed and implemented entirely by the author and has been successfully adopted as the prime science operation planning system for the SMART-1 mission during its extended science phase. The underlying concepts of the SMART-1 science operation planning system have been ultimately validated through the operational usage of the SOPS and the retrieved scientific results from the spacecraft. The successful experience of adopting the centralised science operation planning concept and its reference implementation SOPS in the SMART-1 mission has been acknowledged by the ESA planetary mission independent group (MIG). Its application for the ESA planetary missions Rosetta and BepiColombo is therefore being currently (2009) studied and prototyped

Design and implementation of a new generic planning software system for the science operations of ESA planetary missions

One of the major tasks of Science Operation Centres of the European Space Agency is planning and coordinating the operational activities of the scientific payloads of ESA planetary missions such as Rosetta, SMART-1 and Venus Express. To achieve the scientific objectives of these missions, it is necessary to analyse the availability of science opportunities in each phase of the mission and to select and prioritize the operations of the scientific payloads with respect to their corresponding scientific goals. The Science Operations Planning System (SOPS) is a set of new software tools, which is being developed at the Research and Scientific Support Department of ESA, in the context of a new generic and mission-independent concept for science operations planning. The reference implementation of this new system is, however, based on the ongoing ESA Moon mission, SMART-1. SOPS is composed of two major components: The science data management system to store all relevant information about the operations of scientific payloads The science opportunity analysing and operation planning system In this paper an overview of the new generic planning system will be presented and the architectural design of the SOPS will discussed in more detail.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Accomplishing the science objectives through the enhancement of the science planning process for ESA planetary missions

The problem of planning the operations of scientific instruments on a planetary mission is characterised by the presence of a considerable number of candidate science opportunities at any given time, which are competing for limited and shared resources. One of the major challenges of any planning and scheduling problem is defining expedient criteria for the selection and prioritisation of activities, in order to achieve the objectives and to optimise the outcome of the planning process. Science operation planning for ESA planetary mission is no exception in this respect; mission science objectives need to be achieved inside the allocated mission duration through the scheduling of instrument observations within the available constraints and resources. In the centralised science-planning concept the process begins with the collection and organisation of the input planning information. Instrument teams submit observation requests that encapsulate all of the required information for planning a generic category of observations. Defining a link to one or more of the mission science objectives provides the justification for the inclusion of an observation. While a simple link can identify which scientific objectives a requested observation would contribute to the actual extent of the contribution requires the information and links to be elaborated. Another aspect that is not addressed sufficiently by simple assignment of requested observations to scientific objectives is the prioritisation of observations based on their context, that is consideration of previously executed or planned future observations of the same type. This paper will discuss how elaborated constraints and criteria for fulfilment of science objectives can be accommodated in the science planning data model. In particular it will examine the use of coverage requirements to define observation campaigns and their role in a prioritisation scheme used to converge on an observation schedule that optimises the contribution to the mission objectives, given the limited availability of spacecraft resources. © 2010 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. All rights reserved.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

SOPS: The science operations planning system for the first ESA lunar mission SMART-1

One of the major tasks of the SMART-1 Science and Technology Operation Coordination of the European Space Agency is planning and coordinating the operational activities of the scientific payloads on SMART-1. To fulfil the scientific objectives of this mission and to achieve an optimal scientific output, it is necessary to analyse the possible science opportunities in each phase of the mission and to select and prioritize the operations of the scientific payloads with respect to the corresponding scientific goals. The Science Operations Planning System, SOPS, is the name of a set of new, generic software tools, which is being developed at the Research and Scientific Support Department of ESA for this purpose and is being currently used on Smart-1. It will help the science operation engineers and the payload teams by providing them with tools and information to ease and speed the process of decision making and planning. SOPS is composed of two major groups of components: The first group, the so called science operations knowledge base, provides the infrastructure to store all the relevant information about the operations of scientific payloads and various sophisticated interfaces to access this information through remote computers. The second group consists of a number of tools and clients, which access and use the information, contained in the knowledge base, to carry out different tasks such as analyzing/visualizing the possible science opportunities for scientific payloads, planning the communication passes and payload observations, archiving performed payload operations and generating interface documents and files for other existing planning tools at RSSD and for the flight control team. © 2006 by European Space Agency, ESA. VEGA Group PLC.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

ESA's SMART-1 science planning concept and its evolution throughout the mission

SMART-1 is the first ESA lunar mission and was primarily built to test a novel solarelectrical propulsion system and a set of miniaturized instruments during its long cruise phase en route to the Moon. Nevertheless, possessing a handful of advanced scientific instruments, it was able to become an important science mission after Moon arrival at the end of 2004. The Science planning concept, being first drawn from a generic concept devised in ESA's Research and Scientific Support Department (RSSD) for all ESA planetary missions, had to be slightly modified due to the very special nature of this project. Being the first of a series of ESA low cost missions, the tight budget directed SMART-1 to use planning tools developed by bigger ESA planetary missions. This approach made powerful tools available for SMART-1 that wouldn't be possible otherwise, however their development was not always guided by SMART-1 and as a consequence essential developments had to be implemented in parallel to the routine mission phase. The second strong constraint on the planning comes from the fact that only spare time from other missions is available for SMART-1 communications. This creates extra difficulties on the mission planning, as ground station availability is only known one week before the spacecraft pointing requests are frozen. The targeted oriented nature of the mission, and the operational constraints imposed by the communications passes makes it impossible to make a solid plan much in advance. The short time frames to prepare operations and the evolving tools, guided the SMART-1 Science Operations Coordination Centre (STOC) to develop a flexible science planning concept where it should be possible to respond quick and adapt almost immediately tool evolutions. In order to achieve the goals proposed the STOC had to choose a centralised approach, where experiment teams provide the scientific goals and the operations needed to achieve such goals. The STOC then has to identify where in the mission the operations to achieve the desired science are available and propose a high level operational timeline to the experiment teams. This centralised approach and identification of valid science opportunities based on science goals decreases considerably the number of iterations needed in a planning cycle and as a consequence the planning time, making it possible to match the SMART-1 time constraints. This paper will describe the SMART-1 planning concept, its evolution, and the impact such evolution had on the planned operations, and consequently science return. © 2006 by VEGA Group PLC. and the European Space Agency.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

CCSDS Mission Planning And Scheduling Services Opening Door For Cross-Agency Interoperability

Mission Planning and Scheduling are integral parts of Mission Operations and closely related to the other aspects of the overall Monitoring and Control of space missions. Mission Planning is an activity that often requires interaction between multiple entities, where also cross-agency collaborations could potentially be facilitated. In the absence of commonly agreed international space standards for typical mission planning and scheduling exchange interfaces, the current approach is to define such interfaces on a per-mission or per-agency basis. This hinders the potential for reuse and increases the development and operations costs due to proliferation of implementations of the same functionality in different contexts. The Mission Planning and Scheduling (MPS) Working Group (WG) of the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) has been formed in 2015, with the current participation from 8 space agencies. The MPS WG has the objective of specifying generic, interoperable mission planning and scheduling interfaces. This paper will provide an overview of the current progress of the standardization work in this area. It will depict an outline of the comprehensive Information Model that has been worked out by the MPS WG and will describe the Services Specification for exchange of the relevant information

Smart-1 science operations: Experiences and recommendations from ESA's first lunar mission

The European Space Agency's Smart-1 spacecraft has been in orbit around the Moon since February 2005. The Smart-1 Science and Technology Operations Coordination Centre (STOC) for ESA's first lunar mission is based within the Planetary Missions Division, making it the first in a series of interplanetary missions that will have their Science Operations Centre based in ESA. This small team of science operations engineers is responsible for proposing and coordinating all of the payload operations based on an established set of science-themes, prioritised targets and desired observation conditions identified in advance of the mission by the Smart-1 instrument scientists. This paper will summarise the initial goals of Smart-1, then reflect on the achievements and setbacks experienced within each phase of the mission. It will highlight the pro-active planning approach adopted by the STOC, which aims to optimise the science return of the Smart-1 mission. The lessons learned from this approach will be addressed, leading to recommendations for future missions from the perspective of the science operations manager. © 2006 by VEGA. ESA.link_to_subscribed_fulltex