International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 30-November 02, 1995 / Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada / Satellite operations have been inherently manpower intensive since they began over thirty years ago. Since manpower intensive equates to costs, this mode of operations cannot survive in light of government budget cuts and commercial profitability. Two factors are now key for both government and commercial satellite control centers: 1) systems must be highly automated to minimize the operations staff, and 2) these automated systems must be deployed and enhanced at a low cost. This paper describes the three principle challenges which arise in migrating from high-cost, manpower intensive satellite operations to low-cost, automated satellite operations and makes recommendations for solving them.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 17-20, 1994 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / An increasing number of satellite users and manufacturers are looking to lightweight, inexpensive satellites as substitutes to traditional large, expensive satellites with multiple payloads. Neither the Department of Defense nor the commercial sector can bear the financial or reputational consequences associated with massive program failures. With the low cost and weight of these new satellites, users can achieve mission success without great risk. One example of this new class of inexpensive spacecraft is the RADCAL (RADar CALibration) satellite. Detachment 2, Space & Missile Systems Center at Sunnyvale, CA operates the satellite. RADCAL is a 200-pound polar orbiting satellite with an average altitude of 450 miles. It is primarily used by 77 worldwide radars to calibrate their systems to within five meter accuracy. Also flying on board RADCAL is a communication payload for remote field users with small radios. The RADCAL program has satisfied all mission requirements. However, with the limited size and cost come certain challenges, both in the satellite and on the ground. Pre-launch testing was not as comprehensive as with more expensive programs; anomalies have arisen that require extensive workarounds. Data management is not a straightforward task, and it is sometimes difficult and inexact to track satellite performance. These challenges are presented with their solutions in the following discussion; this paper addresses the functional, operational, and testing aspects associated with the RADCAL satellite.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 23-26, 2000 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / With wireless communications becoming the rule rather than the exception, satellite operators need tools to effectively monitor increasingly large and complex satellite constellations. Visual data monitoring increases the monitoring capacity of satellite operators by several orders of magnitude, enabling them to track hundreds of thousands of parameters in real-time on a single screen. With this powerful new tool, operators can proactively address potential problems before they become customer complaints.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 30-November 02, 1995 / Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada / Deutsche Telekom has been operating different flight models for several years. A Satellite Control Center (SCC) was designed and installed to support the operation of the satellite systems DFS Kopernikus and TV-Sat. The DFS Kopernikus system is composed of three flight models and the satellite system TV-Sat has one flight model. The aim was to design an SCC and ground stations in a way, enabling the operation of satellites and groundstations by only two operators at the main control room. The operators are well trained but not scientifically educated. The high integrated SCC supports the operators with a state of the art man-machine-interface. Software executes all necessary tasks for spacecraft- and ground station control. Interaction in front of communication equipment is not necessary. The operation of satellites is a business with a high risk potential. This paper presents the design of a Satellite Control Center with high system availability.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 28-31, 1996 / Town and Country Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / The science payload for NASA's Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) satellite is controlled from the EUVE Science Operations Center (ESOC) at the Center for EUV Astrophysics (CEA), University of California, Berkeley (UCB). The ESOC is in the process of a transition from a single staffed shift to an autonomous, zero-shift, "lights out" science payload operations scenario (a.k.a., 1:0). The purpose of the 1:0 transition is to automate all of the remaining routine, daily, controller telemetry monitoring and associated "shift" work. Building on the ESOC's recent success moving from three-shift to one-shift operations (completed in Feb 1995), the 1:0 transition will further reduce payload operations costs and will be a "proof of concept" for future missions; it is also in line with NASA's goals of "cheaper, faster, better" operations and with its desire to out-source missions like EUVE to academe and industry. This paper describes the 1:0 transition for the EUVE science payload: the purpose, goals, and benefits; the relevant science payload instrument health and safety considerations; the requirements for, and implementation of, the multi-phased approach; a cost/benefit analysis; and the various lessons learned along the way.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 30-November 02, 1995 / Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada / The UC Berkeley Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) Science Operations Center (ESOC) is developing and implementing knowledge-based software to automate the monitoring of satellite payload telemetry. Formerly, EUVE science payload data were received, archived, interpreted, and responded to during round-the-clock monitoring by human operators. Now, knowledge-based software will support, augment, and supplement human intervention. In response to and as a result of this re-engineering project, the creation, storage, revision, and communication of information (the information flow process) within the ESOC has been redesigned. We review the information flow process within the ESOC before, during, and after the re-engineering of telemetry monitoring. We identify six fundamental challenges we face in modifying the information flow process. (These modifications are necessary because of the shift from continuous human monitoring to a knowledge-based autonomous monitoring system with intermittent human response.) We describe the innovations we have implemented in the ESOC information systems, including innovations in each part of the information flow process for short-term or dynamic information (which changes or updates within a week) as well as for long-term or static information (which is valid for more than a week). We discuss our phased approach to these innovations, in which modifications were made in small increments and the lessons learned at each step were incorporated into subsequent modifications. We analyze some mistakes and present lessons learned from our experience.