Paper
12 July 2008 Evaluating requirements on the Spitzer Mission operations system based on flight operations experience
Author Affiliations +
Abstract
The Spitzer Space Telescope launched in August 2003, and has been in its nominal operations phase since December 2003. This paper will review some of the pre-launch, high-level project requirements in light of our operations experience. We discuss how we addressed some of those requirements pre-launch, what post-launch development we've done based on our experience, and some recommendations for future missions. Some of the requirements we examine in this paper are related to observational efficiency, completeness of data return, on-board storage of science data, and response time for targets of opportunity and data accountability. We also discuss the bearing that mission constraints have had on our solutions. These constraints include Spitzer's heliocentric orbit and resulting declining telecom performance, CPU utilization, relatively high data rate for a deep space mission, and use of both on-board RF power amplifiers, among others.
© (2008) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Marc A. Sarrel and Joseph C. Hunt Jr. "Evaluating requirements on the Spitzer Mission operations system based on flight operations experience", Proc. SPIE 7016, Observatory Operations: Strategies, Processes, and Systems II, 70161P (12 July 2008); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.788058
Lens.org Logo
CITATIONS
Cited by 3 scholarly publications.
Advertisement
Advertisement
RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS
Get copyright permission  Get copyright permission on Copyright Marketplace
KEYWORDS
Space operations

Antennas

Telecommunications

Data storage

Phased array optics

Helium

Molybdenum

RELATED CONTENT

Spitzer scheduling challenges: cold and warm
Proceedings of SPIE (July 12 2008)
Spitzer operations: scheduling the out years
Proceedings of SPIE (September 13 2012)
Spitzer warm mission transition and operations
Proceedings of SPIE (July 29 2010)
SIRTF in-orbit checkout and science verification plan
Proceedings of SPIE (March 05 2003)

Back to Top