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

Abstract

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.