Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Fuse results from
individual sensors
Plan
Act
Perceive
Fig. 7.7.
Cooperative perception
7.3 Spacecraft Mission Management
Spacecraft mission management is a complex process involving the
coordination of experts from diverse disciplines. This section will outline
a spacecraft mission model and describe the attributes of each group in
the process. While it mixes some of the nomenclature from the deep space
and earth science domains, the model provides a generic view of mission
management organizations.
Figure
7.8
is a graphical representation of the management of a typical
spacecraft mission. While the organization for a specific mission may vary,
generally five different activities make up mission management. The process
begins with the Science Planning group, which is responsible for creating
the science plan representing the science goals. Using the science goals and
spacecraft-housekeeping constraints, the Mission Planning group creates the
overall mission plan for the spacecraft. This plan is passed to the Sequence
Planning group, which converts the high level plan into a series of individual
commands that the spacecraft will perform. This command sequence is passed
to the Command Sequencer, which uplinks the commands to the spacecraft
and monitors the results. Finally, the spacecraft delivers science data, which
go to Science Data Processing to be converted into a form useful to scientists.
At various points in the process, telemetry or science data provide feedback
to allow one or more of the planning groups to change direction.
This section now describes each group, including its responsibilities and
products.
7.3.1 Science Planning
Science planning for typical missions involves a large group of scientists, mis-
sion engineers, and instrument engineers with different backgrounds, domains
of expertise, and modes of operation. This makes the science planning activity
an exercise in collaboration and negotiation. A milestone in this process is the
production of the science plan, which details the science goals to be achieved
