A Challenging Trio in Space 'Routine' Operations of the Swarm Satellite Constellation
Abstract
Swarm is the first ESA Earth Observation Mission with three satellites flying in a semi-controlled constellation. The trio is operated from ESA's satellite control centre ESOC in Darmstadt, Germany. The Swarm Flight Operations Segment consists of the typical elements of a satellite control system at ESOC, but had to be carefully tailored for this innovative mission. The main challenge was the multi-satellite system of Swarm, which necessitated the development of a Mission Control System with a multi-domain functionality, both in hardware and software and covering real-time and backup domains. This was driven by the need for extreme flexibility for constellation operations and parallel activities.The three months of commissioning in 2014 were characterized by a very tight and dynamically changing schedule of activities. All operational issues could be solved during that time, including the challenging orbit acquisition phase to achieve the final constellation.Although the formal spacecraft commissioning phase was concluded in spring 2014, the investigations for some payload instruments continue even today. The Electrical Field Instruments are for instance still being tested in order to characterize and improve science data quality. Various test phases also became necessary for the Accelerometers on the Swarm satellites. In order to improve the performance of the GPS Receivers for better scientific exploitation and to minimize the failures due to loss of synchronization, a number of parameter changes were commanded via on-board patches.Finally, to minimize the impact on operations, a new strategy had to be implemented to handle single/multi bit errors in the on-board mass Memories, defining when to ignore and when to restore the memory via a re-initialisation.The poster presentation summarizes the Swarm specific ground segment elements of the FOS and explains some of the extended payload commissioning operations, turning Swarm into a most demanding and challenging mission for the Flight Control Team at ESOC.
- Publication:
-
Living Planet Symposium
- Pub Date:
- August 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016ESASP.740E.277D