International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 27-30, 1997 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Stanford’s Space Systems Development Laboratory is developing methods for automated spacecraft health operations. Such operations greatly reduce the need for ground-space communication links and full-time operators. However, new questions emerge about how to supply operators with the spacecraft information that is no longer available. One solution is to introduce a low-bandwidth health beacon and to develop new approaches in on-board summarization of health data for telemetering. This paper reviews the development of beacon operations and data summary, describes the implementation of beacon-based health management on board SAPPHIRE, and explains the mission operations response to health emergencies. Additional information is provided on the role of SSDL’s academic partners in developing a worldwide network of beacon receiving stations.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 28-31, 1996 / Town and Country Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / A ground based intelligent agent and operations network is being created to handle all aspects of spacecraft command and control. This system will have the dual purpose of enabling cost efficient operation of a number of small satellites and serving as a flexible testbed for the validation of space system autonomy strategies. The system is currently being targeted to include over a dozen globally distributed amateur radio ground stations and access to nearly ten spacecraft. The use of distributed computing systems and virtual interaction schemes are significantly contributing to the creation of this system. The Internet is used to link the network's control centers and ground stations. In addition, a World Wide Web (WWW) based user and operator interface is being developed to permit high level goal specification of spacecraft experiments and actions. This paper will describe the operating network being developed, the use of the Internet as an integral part of the system's architecture, the design of the WWW interface, and the future development of the system.