European Space Operations Centre

About: European Space Operations Centre is a government organization based out in Darmstadt, Germany. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Orbit determination & Satellite. The organization has 309 authors who have published 331 publications receiving 10399 citations. The organization is also known as: ESOC.

CNES and ESOC Flight Dynamics Operational Experience on First Nominal FOC Launch and Fine Positioning Activities of GALILEO

Abstract: The involvement of the French Space Agency in GALILEO Launch and Early in Orbit Phase (LEOP) operations dates from 2006. This involvement has required the development of an organization that is able to answer to the mission requirements taking into account operations recurrence and taking full advantage of the partnership between the French Space Agency (CNES) and the European Space Operations Center Teams (ESOC). The implementation of this organization at flight dynamics level has been set up for the first GALILEO launch in 2011 and, then, improved launch after launch. The objective of this chapter is to give an overview of the way CNES Flight Dynamics operations are organized after 9 years and four launch campaigns taking as illustration the fourth launch. After a general description of GALILEO LEOP concepts, the CNES Flight Dynamics team organization will be detailed and then illustrated in the light of the Flight Dynamics operations performed for the 4th launch, from preparation to the end of execution.

Summary of the plenary sessions at European Space Weather Week 15: space weather users and service providers working together now and in the future

Abstract: During European Space Weather Week 15 two plenary sessions were held to review the status of operational space weather forecasting. The first session addressed the topic of working with space weather service providers now and in the future, the user perspective. The second session provided the service perspective, addressing experiences in forecasting development and operations. Presentations in both sessions provided an overview of international efforts on these topics, and panel discussion topics arising in the first session were used as a basis for panel discussion in the second session. Discussion topics included experiences during the September 2017 space weather events, cross domain impacts, timeliness of notifications, and provision of effective user education. Users highlighted that a 'severe' space weather event did not necessarily lead to severe impacts for each individual user across the different sectors. Service providers were generally confident that timely and reliable information could be provided during severe and extreme events, although stressed that more research and funding were required in this relatively new field of operational space weather forecasting, to ensure continuation of capabilities and further development of services, in particular improved forecasting targeting user needs. Here a summary of the sessions is provided followed by a commentary on the current state-of-the-art and potential next steps towards improvement of services.

Software for automatic control of spacecraft instruments

Abstract: The first part of this paper describes the data processing system used at the European Space Operations Centre, for the remote control of GEOS, a multi-experiment scientific research spacecraft. This spacecraft contains a number of instruments designed to carry out wideband measurements of particle and wavefield phenomena. To adapt these instruments to the changing space environment, a ground-based control system operates in closed loop with the spacecraft. The second part of the paper deals with the trends in this field towards distribution of control in the instruments of spacecraft. The advantages and disadvantages of using microprocessors for distributed intelligence in spacecraft are discussed.