The Solar System Science Operations Laboratory A S c i en ce
oppo r t un i t y ana l y s i s t oo l f o r Ma r co Po l o -R?
2 COMPUTATIONAL BASIS Existing prototype: Developed in IDL
language with Object Oriented approach. Based on SPICE a planetary
data information system developed by NAIF
(NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory). Interface with MSQL
database.
Available Ephemeris of natural bodies and trajectory of the
spacecraft. Provides 3D/2D environment of the spacecraft
trajectory, attitude, pointing
for a given instrument and various contextual geometrical
parameters. Computational core allows for definition and analysis
of observation
opportunities and scientific events for the whole duration of
the mission.
6 CONCLUSIONS & FUTURE DEVELOPMENT The objective of this
contribution is to show the existing and potential capabilities of
the current design and investigate possibilities to support other
interplanetary missions, in particular the analysis of different
scientific scenarios for Marco Polo-R.
5 CURRENT USAGE & VALIDATION Used regularly by Venus Express
planners and liaison scientists. Inherits SPICE precision and has
been validated with real data. The following series of figures
depicts an image acquisition process with
the Venus Monitoring Camera for a far from pericenter nadir
observation:
1 INTRODUCING SOLAB The Solar System Science Operations
Laboratory (SOLab) is a research and development project funded by
the European Space Agency and carried out at the European Space and
Astronomy Centre in Madrid, inside the Science Operations
Department of the Science and Robotic Exploration Directorate. The
aim of the project is to investigate new software techniques for
computation, visualization and analysis of scientific observation
opportunities for interplanetary missions, focusing on the
geometrical requirements to cover the scientific mission
objectives. The existing framework has been designed with a
multi-mission approach, with the capability to geometrically
simulate different types of remote sensing and in-situ instruments
with any type of central body an sets of targets. The project
adresses the scientific requirements with a multi-mission and
multi-target frame that is currently being used in support of
operational missions like Venus Express and Mars Express, and has
already started to support the development phases of future
missions like Solar Orbiter, BepiColombo and JUICE.
SOLab simulation VMC observation Superimpression
Alejandro Cardesn1,2, Marc Costa1, Miguel Almeida2,3, Nicolas
Altobelli2, Pablo Arriazu2,4 1INSA, Pintor Rosales, 3, 28008
Madrid, Spain, 2ESAC/ESA, PO Box 78 E-28691 Villanueva de la Caada,
Madrid, Spain, 3VEGA Space, PO Box 78 E-28691 Villanueva de la
Caada, Madrid, Spain, 4Technical University of Madrid, Ramiro de
Maeztu, 7, 28040, Madrid, Spain. Contact:
[email protected]
4 SCIENCE OPPORTUNITY ANALYSIS In order to create a Long Term
Science Activity Plan, all the science observation opportunities
can be studied for any mission scenario and scientifically
evaluated based on the contextual geometry (illumination, distance,
etc) in order to assess the scientific return and analyze whether
all the scientific goals of the mission are covered. An example of
science opportunity events are Star, Sun and Earth occultations,
closest-approach events with any body in the Jovian system that the
JUICE spacecraft will do, overflight of surface target of interest,
the visibility of a ground station, etc. These events, given as
Time Windows, can be processed for the whole mission duration
(using the SOLab Event Finder) and stored in a database (Tour
Atlas, located in a server at ESAC) for further analysis with SOLab
using filters on multiple geometrical or operational
parameters.
3 USING SOLAB Liaison Scientists, Planners, Instrument teams
Basic usage for science operations planning support The user builds
observations by building pointing & attitude
Time Windows S/C pointing mode (nadir, track, limb, off-nadir)
Instrument selection
Interactive modification of the observation using 2D/3D display
Building pointing blocks using time windows
SOLab is a reseach project in Science Operations Developmet
Division at the European Space and Astronomy Center. VMC and
background images courtesy of ESA/MPS/DLR/IDA.
Figure 1: Example of SOLab 3D display window. Spacecraft
orbiting an asteroid.
Figure 2: Limb tracking of Mars Express over Gale Crater.
Several footprints are shown. MEX attitude was produced with
operational planning system used by the Mars Express Science Ground
Segment and converted to SPICE.
Figure 5 and 6: Event handler protoype impression (left) and all
JUICE stellar occultations on Ganymede (right). The user requests
an event (star occultation) to a database (Tour Atlas) and
afterwards events are displayed in a multi-dimensional plot where
they can be handled and then analyzed in detail by SOLabs other
modules.
Figure 4: Working with a Time Window. In the figure we can see
Venus Express orbiting Venus with VMC nadir observations close to
pericenter. A quantity defined for the Time Window are VMCs
footprints.
Figure 3: SOLab 2D display which contains the projection of
Figure 1 scene.
Figure 7: Long Term planning of Mars Express (Blue) and MAVEN
(Red) campaigns of joint observations of the martian atmosphere.
Random and North Pole views.
