Citation

Abstract

In the "faster, better, cheaper" era, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) continues to develop smaller and more frequent missions. The Deep Space Network (DSN) must track many spacecraft simultaneously. With ground tracking resources limited and with NASA moving into an era of full cost accounting, the need for an e–cient and well-coordinated multimission telecommunications analysis service is apparent. This service is now provided as part of the Telecommunications and Mission Operations Directorate (TMOD) Deep Space Mission System (DSMS). Deep Space 1 (DS1) is the first mission to subscribe to TMOD’s services. This article describes the DS1 telecommunications link analysis service scenarios, including the DS1 safing incident on July 28, 1999, the day of the asteroid Braille flyby. The aim of this article is to demonstrate that good people, e–cient processes, and efiective tools are key elements that enable (1) a wide range of cost-efiective telecommunications analysis support and (2) timely detection and anticipation of unforeseen situations.

Keywords

telecommunications services mission support analysis Deep Space 1 Telecommunications Forecaster Predictor (TFP) Unified Telecommunications Predictor (UTP) asteroid flyby

Details

Volume
42-140
Published
February 15, 2000
Pages
1–20
File Size
570.5 KB