An annotated, extremely informal glossary describing whos who in the mission control zoo. Transporting your inner spacecraft operations engineer– or rock vocalist– begins with understanding the lingo!
4 colleagues at mission control Credit: ESOC Film Academy
Safe Mode– a pre-programmed, low-functioning state of the spacecraft immediately presumed when something has actually gone on-board and wrong autonomy could not solve it. In a Safe Mode, the spacecraft changes off any complicated functions, like firing its thrusters, shuts down science observations, turns its primary antenna toward Earth (to ensure communications), solar panels toward the Sun (to make sure power) and waits for assistance from ground.
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ARM and GO– 2 buttons that have actually to be clicked consecutively in the Mission Control System in order to send out a telecommand to the spacecraft. There are two of them so that nobody might send out commands by mistake.
Anomaly– something unusual, triggered by anything from a problem in a computer to a solar flare. Nobody in OPS likes anomalies, except maybe PA (see below).
Bitrate– the speed of an information connection (in the video, discussed as the bitrate in between a spacecraft and ground control).
Brian May– famous rock artist and researcher.
FOD (Flight Operations Director)– head of the Mission Control Team, i.e. the team of teams managing a spacecraft, especially after it is injected into orbit by its launcher rocket. Includes the Flight Control Team, supported by groups from flight characteristics, ground stations, software application systems and a number of other practical areas. Often heard performing the GO/NO-GO rollcall on the voice loop.
Flight Dynamics– a pool of tremendously talented and gifted professionals on orbital mechanics and intricate mathematics involved in attitude and orbit decision and control. Revered by the rest of OPS (and fortunately not in fact armed, as portrayed in the video, with ray guns).
Fly-by– a crucial manoeuvre utilizing a worlds gravity to speed up (or slow down) a spacecraft without utilizing fuel. ESAs Solar Orbiter and the ESA-Jaxa BepiColombo spacecraft are conducting 18 flyby manoeuvres as part of their missions to the Sun and Mercury, respectively.
Main Control Room (MCR)– the coolest space at ESA mission control, if not the entire Solar System and called one of the 5 coolest mission control spaces of perpetuity by the BBC. Supplies centers for the Mission Control Team to collaborate throughout crucial operations for any objective, such as launch or getting in orbit around a planet like Mars, and offers back-up and redundancy for undisturbed spacecraft control. Alternatively, regular operations are run from separate, smaller Dedicated Control Rooms (DCRs).
OPS (Directorate of Operations)– mostly located at ESAs ESOC Space Operations Centre but with various coworkers working at other ESA centres in Europe and ground stations around the world. Today, OPS groups at ESOC are flying 15 objectives consisting of 22 spacecraft. OPS coworkers at ESAs European Space Security and Education Centre, at Redu, Belgium, fly 3 more spacercaft..
Item Assurance (PA) representative– a specialist supporting the Flight Control Team whenever anything goes wrong, helping manage threat and tracking ground sector and spacecraft setup.
SOE (Spacecraft Operations Engineer)– a specialist working on the Flight Control Team, generally one for each of the spacecrafts functional areas, including attitude and orbit control, power and onboard and thermal computer systems. These experts understand their spacecraft inside out. Recently, while teleworking from home under Coronavirus measures, SOEs have needed to start handling felines, too, according to The Atlantic magazine.
SOM (Spacecraft Operations Manager)– head of the Flight Control Team flying an objective, which can comprise one, 2, three or several spacecraft.
And: you may like to follow them by means of SpaceRocksOfficial or SpaceRocksLive for continuing area, music and cultural awesomeness!.
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European Space-ody was written, produced, carried out and tape-recorded by the Film Academy and the Musicians Group, 2 of the staff member social clubs at ESAs ESOC space operations centre, Darmstadt, Germany.
The lyrics refer to a number of the real-life professional functions at ESAs mission control centre, which is not surprising as much of the performers are the real-life experts fulfilling functions at ESAs objective control centre.
And if you view carefully, you may find a particular, well-known artist in a cameo walk-on. While he might not be a spacecraft operations engineer, he is an authentic area scientist and in truth is dealing with the science group on ESAs upcoming Hera planetary defence mission! I digress…
Long story short, we believed it might be helpful to offer an annotated glossary describing who these roles are, and provide a few talk about what they do.
Lastly: Many thanks to the folks over at SpaceRocks for hosting Space-ody!.
SpaceRocks is an event of the music, art, and culture motivated by space expedition, in association with ESA. Their very first event was held in 2018 and they host a weekly livestream called Uplink which is hosted by co-founders Alexander Milas and Mark McCaughrean, ESAs senior consultant for science and expedition. Find out more at www.spacerocksofficial.com.
17 December 2020: Join the Space Rocks Uplink livestream later today to learn more about what takes place at ESA with former Head of Mission Operations, Paolo Ferri, and Spacecraft Operations Engineer Armelle Hubault– SpaceRocks will be live from 19:00 (GMT)/ 20:00 (CET)/ 14:00 (EST) via http://www.youtube.com/spacerocks.
Update 18 Dec: Watch the Uplink replay here:.
Like some, you might have just recently seen a fabulously fun video ballad entitled European Space-ody (rhymes with rhapsody), which can be discovered where all popular videos are found nowadays, in YouTube
” In space, teamwork is essential to success. The stakes are high, objectives can be valued in the billions of euro and the scientific data might be literally irreplaceable. The spacecraft operations supervisor assumes and develops a team obligation– and when issues take place, time is crucial and solutions unobvious, its the SOM and his or her team who take the lead,” states Paolo Ferri, previous Head of Mission Operations at ESA
European Space-ody glossary.
Carrying your inner spacecraft operations engineer– or rock singer– starts with understanding the terminology!
See ESAs dramatisation, The Burn, to see how Mission Control Teams train to manage unforeseen safe modes
Scheduling– headquarters for allocating limited ground station time to private spacecraft.
Researchers– We make certain they get to the destinations– worlds, comets, asteroids, && and so on– they dream of exploring. BTW: One or 2 might have wandered into some of the shots in Space-ody. Can you find Matt Taylor (aka Dr Matt Death Metal Unicorn Taylor)? Or Brian May (aka brianmayforreal)? #Hera #CometInterceptor.
SimOff (Simulations Officer)– an expert supporting– and torturing– the whole Mission Control Team throughout their months-long sim project training for vital operations, such as launch.
SpaCon (Spacecraft Controller)– works on console in the control space, and is the only member of the group who really transfers commands to the spacecraft. Usually, the most junior member of the team.
Uplink– sending out commands from ground to the spacecraft through a ground station.
Windmilling– an uncontrolled rotation of a spacecraft performing an aerobraking manoeuvre triggered by e.g. asymmetric atmospheric resistance.
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FOD (Flight Operations Director)– head of the Mission Control Team, i.e. the team of teams controlling a spacecraft, especially after it is injected into orbit by its launcher rocket. Main Control Room (MCR)– the coolest room at ESA mission control, if not the entire Solar System and named one of the 5 coolest mission control rooms of all time by the BBC. Offers facilities for the Mission Control Team to work together during critical operations for any objective, such as launch or entering orbit around a world like Mars, and supplies back-up and redundancy for continuous spacecraft control. SOE (Spacecraft Operations Engineer)– a professional working on the Flight Control Team, usually one for each of the spacecrafts practical locations, consisting of attitude and orbit control, power and onboard and thermal computer systems. The spacecraft operations supervisor presumes and constructs a group duty– and when issues occur, time is crucial and options unobvious, its the SOM and his or her team who take the lead,” states Paolo Ferri, previous Head of Mission Operations at ESA
ESA OPS in Twitter: From Earth orbit to deep space: sharing the enjoyment of realtime objective operations at the European Space Agency.
Tweets by esaoperations.
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