STEREO's mission operations approach reduces costs while enhancing science return by using two autonomously designed spacecraft, and by separating spacecraft and instrument operations.
Each of the twin observatories can carry out many functions on its own, including sensing its position, orientation and orbit, and react accordingly. Since autonomous spacecraft are easier to operate, the spacecraft and instruments can be controlled from separate locations. |
Mission operations personnel at APL conduct a prelaunch simulation. |
Worldwide experts over a wide range of specialties are teaming to carry out the STEREO mission. Each of the four instrument principal investigators, or PIs, have direct control of their instruments and experiments from Payload Operations Centers situated at four locations worldwide.
The Payload Operations Centers forward commands daily to the STEREO Mission Operations Center located at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, in Laurel, Md. Here, instructions for the instruments and spacecraft will be combined and uplinked to each of the observatories once daily using NASA's Deep Space Network. The APL-based Mission Operations Center will also oversee downlinking data from both observatories, forwarding it electronically to the STEREO Science Center at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., and to each of the Payload Operations Centers.
For more information about APL-based mission operations facilities, click here. |
