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Member States Etats membres

Austria AllemagneBelgium AutricheDenmark BelgiqueFinland DanemarkFrance EspagneGermany FinlandeIreland FranceItaly IrlandeNetherlands ItalieNorway NorvègePortugal Pays-BasSpain PortugalSweden Royaume-UniSwitzerland SuèdeUnited Kingdom Suisse

Contact: ESA Publications Divisionc/o ESTEC, PO Box 299, 2200 AG Noordwijk, The NetherlandsTel (31) 71 565 3400 - Fax (31) 71 565 5433Visit ESA Publications at: http://www.esa.int

ESA bulletin 121 - february 2005

SPACE FOR EUROPE

number 121 - february 2005

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w.esa.int

COVER BUL-121 4/19/05 10:25 AM

european space agency

The European Space Agency was formed out of and took over the rights and obligations of, the two earlier European Space Organisations – theEuropean Space Research Organisation (ESRO) and the European Organisation for the Development and Construction of Space Vehicle Launchers(ELDO). The Member States are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain,Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Canada is a Cooperating State.

In the words of its Convention: the purpose of the Agency shall be to provide for and to promote for exclusively peaceful purposes, co-operation amongEuropean States in space research and technology and their space applications, with a view to their being used for scientific purposes and for operationalspace applications systems:

(a) by elaborating and implementing a long-term European space policy, by recommending space objectives to the Member States, and by concertingthe policies of the Member States with respect to other national and international organisations and institutions;

(b) by elaborating and implementing activities and programmes in the space field;(c) by co-ordinating the European space programme and national programmes, and by integrating the latter progressively and as completely as

possible into the European space programme, in particular as regards the development of applications satellites;(d) by elaborating and implementing the industrial policy appropriate to its programme and by recommending a coherent industrial policy to the

Member States.

The Agency is directed by a Council composed of representatives of the Member States. The Director General is the chief executive of the Agency andits legal representative.

The ESA HEADQUARTERS are in Paris.

The major establishments of ESA are:

THE EUROPEAN SPACE RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY CENTRE (ESTEC), Noordwijk, Netherlands.

THE EUROPEAN SPACE OPERATIONS CENTRE (ESOC), Darmstadt, Germany

ESRIN, Frascati, Italy.

Chairman of the Council: P. Tegnér

Director General: J.-J. Dordain

agence spatiale européenne

L’Agence Spatiale Européenne est issue des deux Organisations spatiales européennes qui l’ont précédée – l’Organisation européenne de recherchesspatiales (CERS) et l’Organisation européenne pour la mise au point et la construction de lanceurs d’engins spatiaux (CECLES) – dont elle a repris lesdroits et obligations. Les Etats membres en sont: l’Allemagne, l’Autriche, la Belgique, le Danemark, l’Espagne, la Finlande, la France, l’Irlande, l’Italie,la Norvège, les Pays-Bas, le Portugal, le Royaumi-Uni, la Suède et la Suisse. Le Canada bénéficie d’un statut d’Etat coopérant.

Selon les termes de la Convention: l’Agence a pour mission d’assurer et de développer, à des fins exclusivement pacifiques, la coopération entre Etatseuropéens dans les domaines de la recherche et de la technologie spatiales et de leurs applications spatiales, en vue de leur utilisation à des finsscientifiques et pour des systèmes spatiaux opérationnels d’applications:

(a) en élaborant et en mettant en oeuvre une politique spatiale européenne à long terme, en recommandant aux Etats membres des objectifs enmatière spatiale et en concertant les politiques des Etats membres à l’égard d’autres organisations et institutions nationales et internationales;

(b) en élaborant et en mettant en oeuvre des activités et des programmes dans le domaine spatial;(c) en coordonnant le programme spatial européen et les programmes nationaux, et en intégrant ces derniers progressivement et aussi

complètement que possible dans le programme spatial européen, notamment en ce qui concerne le développement de satellites d’applications;(d) en élaborant et en mettant en oeuvre la politique industrielle appropriée à son programme et en recommandant aux Etats membres une politique

industrielle cohérente.

L’Agence est dirigée par un Conseil, composé de représentants des Etats membres. Le Directeur général est le fonctionnaire exécutif supérieur del’Agence et la représente dans tous ses actes.

Le SIEGE de l’Agence est à Paris.

Les principaux Etablissements de l’Agence sont:

LE CENTRE EUROPEEN DE RECHERCHE ET DE TECHNOLOGIE SPATIALES (ESTEC), Noordwijk, Pays-Bas.

LE CENTRE EUROPEEN D’OPERATIONS SPATIALES (ESOC), Darmstadt, Allemagne.

ESRIN, Frascati, Italy

Président du Conseil: P. Tegnér

Directeur général: J.-J. Dordain

Editorial/Circulation OfficeESA Publications DivisionESTEC, PO Box 299, Noordwijk2200 AG The NetherlandsTel.: (31) 71.5653400

EditorsBruce BattrickBarbara Warmbein

Design & LayoutIsabel Kenny

AdvertisingBarbara Warmbein

The ESA Bulletin is published by the European SpaceAgency. Individual articles may be reprinted providedthe credit line reads ‘Reprinted from ESA Bulletin’, plusdate of issue. Signed articles reprinted must bear theauthor’s name. Advertisements are accepted in goodfaith; the Agency accepts no responsibility for theircontent or claims.

Copyright © 2005 European Space AgencyPrinted in the Netherlands ISSN 0376-4265

www.esa.int

Cover: The surface of Titan, as seen for the first time byESA’s Huygens probe. See article on page 6.

INSIDE COVER-B121 4/19/05 9:56 AM

Cluster –A microscope and a telescope

for studying space plasmas

Europe Arrives at the NewFrontier – The Huygens landing on Titan

Europe Arrives at the New Frontier – The Huygens landing on Titan 6

Cluster– A microscope and a telescope for studying space plasmasHarri Laakso et al. 11

AmerHis:The First Switchboard in SpaceManfred Wittig et al. 21

Satellite Navigation, Wireless Networks and the InternetFelix Toran et al. 28

Frequency Management for ESA’s MissionsEdoardo Marelli & Enrico Vassallo 36

www.esa.int esa bulletin 121 - february 2005 1

Columbus: Ready for the International Space StationBernado Patti et al. 46

Software Engineering: Are we getting better at it?Michael Jones 52

‘Maxwell’– A New State-of-the-Art EMC Test FacilityJean-Luc Suchail, Alexandre Popovitch & Philippe Laget 59

Programmes in Progress 64

News – In Brief 80

Publications 88

AmerHis:The FirstSwitchboard in Space

bulletin 121 - february 2005 Contents

‘Maxwell’– A New State-of-the-Art EMC TestFacility

Frequency Managementfor ESA’s Missions

Satellite Navigation, WirelessNetworks and the Internet

593628

6 11 21

CONTENTS-B121 3/3/05 10:05 AM

Europe Arrives at theNew Frontier– The Huygens Landing on Titan

Lebreton 3/3/05 10:08 AM Page 6

esa bulletin 121 - february 2005www.esa.int 7

Europe at the New Frontier

O n 14 January 2005, after a marathon seven-year journey through the Solar System aboard the Cassini spacecraft, ESA’s Huygensprobe successfully descended through the atmosphere of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, and landed safely on its surface. It was

mankind’s first successful attempt to land a probe on another world in the outer Solar System.

Following its release from the Cassini mothership on 25 December, Huygens reached Titan’s outer atmosphere after 20 days and a 4 millionkilometre cruise. The probe started its descent through Titan’s hazy cloud layers from an altitude of about 1270 km at 09:06 UTC. Duringthe following three minutes, Huygens had to decelerate from 18 000 to 1400 km per hour.

A sequence of parachutes then slowed it to less than 300 km per hour. At a height of about 160 km, the probe’s scientific instruments wereexposed to Titan’s atmosphere for the first time and Huygens started to transmit its radio signal to Cassini at 09:12 UTC (spacecraft eventtime). The Huygens radio signals also arrived on Earth, but 67 min later as a faint tone that was detectable by large radio telescopes. Atabout 120 km altitude, the main parachute was jettisoned and replaced by a smaller one to complete the descent. The Huygens radio signalwas detected on Earth at about 11:20 CET by the 110-m Robert Byrd Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia. About 2 hours later, the probe’ssignal was picked-up by telescopes in Australia, which indicated that Huygens had landed and continued to transmit after landing. Cassinilistened to Huygens for 4h 36 min and then transmitted the Huygens data to Earth via NASA’s Deep Space Network once the Huygensmission was over. The first scientific data arrived at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany at 17:19 CET, having also taken 67 min to travel across space. An hour later, the data indicated that Huygens had landed safely at 12:39 CETand had transmitted data for 72 min from Titan’s surface.

Thirty-image composite of Titan’s surface fromaltitudes varying between 13 and 8 kilometres(Credit: ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)


Science

8 esa bulletin 121 - february 2005 www.esa.int

The Descent Huygens was expected to provide the firstdirect and detailed sampling of Titan’satmospheric chemistry and the firstphotographs of its hidden surface, and tosupply a detailed ‘weather report’. One ofthe main reasons for sending Huygens toTitan was that its nitrogen atmosphere, richin methane, and its surface may containmany chemicals of the kind that existed onthe young Earth. Combined with theCassini observations, Huygens couldtherefore deliver an unprecedented view ofSaturn’s mysterious moon.

The view from thirteen kilometres highThe picture on the previous page is acomposite of 30 images taken by Huygensfrom an altitude varying from 13kilometres down to 8 kilometres as theprobe was descending towards its landingsite. At that stage of its descent, Huygenswas dropping almost vertically at a speedof about 5 metres per second and driftinghorizontally at about 1.5 metres persecond, just a leisurely walking pace. Thecomposite image covers an area extendingout about 30 kilometres around the probe.

The final descent and the landing siteAs soon as Huygens had touched down onTitan's surface, some 15 scientists in theDescent Trajectory Working Group werehard at work to determine the location ofthe landing site. Apart from being neededto understand where exactly the probe hadlanded and to provide a reference traject-ory to analyse and interpret the Huygensdata set, having such a profile available fora probe entering the atmosphere of anotherSolar System body is extremely importantfor future space missions.

"The ride was bumpier than we thought itwould be," said Martin Tomasko, PrincipalInvestigator for the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR), the instrumentthat provided Huygens' stunning, imagesamong other data. The probe rocked morethan expected in the upper atmosphere.During its descent through high-altitudehaze, it tilted at least 10 to 20 degrees, whileonce below the haze layer it was morestable, tilting less than 3 degrees. TheHuygens scientists are investigating theprobe’s atmospheric environment during itsdescent in order to explain the bumpy ride.

The bumpy ride was not the onlysurprise during the descent. Scientists hadtheorised that the probe would drop out ofthe haze at between 70 and 50 kilometresaltitude. In fact, Huygens began to emergefrom the haze when only 30 kilometresabove the surface.

When the probe landed, it was not with athud or a splash, but a 'splat' – it had landedin Titanian 'mud'. "I think the biggestsurprise is that we survived landing andthat we lasted so long," said DISR teammember Charles See. "There wasn't even aglitch at impact. That landing was a lotfriendlier than we anticipated."

When the mission was designed, it wasdecided that the DISR's 20-Watt landinglamp should turn on 700 metres above thesurface and illuminate the landing site foras long as 15 minutes after touchdown. "Infact, not only did the landing lamp turn onat exactly 700 metres, but also it was stillshining more than an hour later, whenCassini moved beyond Titan's horizon forits ongoing exploratory tour of the giantmoon and the Saturnian system," saidMartin Tomasko.

“This is a great achievement for Europe and its US partners in this ambitiousinternational endeavour to explore the Saturnian system,” said Jean-Jacques Dordain,ESA’s Director General. “The teamwork in Europe and the USA, between scientists,industry and agencies has been extraordinary and has set the foundation for thisenormous success”.

“Titan was always the target in the Saturn system where the need for ‘ground truth’from a probe was critical. It is a fascinating world and we are now eagerly awaitingthe scientific results,” said Professor David Southwood, Director of ESA’s ScientificProgramme.

“The Huygens scientists are all delighted. This was worth the long wait,” said Dr Jean-Pierre Lebreton, ESA Huygens Mission Manager and Project Scientist.

“Descending through Titan was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and today’sachievement proves that our partnership with ESA was an excellent one,” saidAlphonso Diaz, NASA Associate Administrator of Science.

Panorama of Titan’s surface taken from a height of 8 kilometresduring Huygens’ descent (Credit: ESA/NASA/JPL/University ofArizona)



The First Scientific ResultsMore than 474 megabits of data werereceived in 3 hours 44 minutes fromHuygens, including some 350 picturescollected during the descent and on theground, which revealed a landscapeapparently modelled by erosion, withdrainage channels, shoreline-like features,and even pebble-shaped objects on thesurface.

The atmosphere was probed and sampledfor analysis at altitudes from 160 km toground level, revealing a uniform mix ofmethane with nitrogen in the stratosphere.The methane concentration increasedsteadily in the troposphere and down to thesurface. Clouds of methane were detected atabout 20 km altitude, and methane or ethanefog near the surface. During the descent,sounds were recorded in order to detectpossible distant thunder from lightning,providing an exciting acoustic backdrop toHuygens’ descent.

As the probe touched down, itsinstruments provided a large amount of dataon the texture of the surface, whichresembles wet sand or clay with a thin solidcrust, its composition, mainly a mix of dirtywater ice and hydrocarbon ice, resulting in adarker ‘soil’ than expected. The temperaturemeasured at ground level was about minus180 degrees Celsius.

Spectacular images captured by the DISRreveal that Titan has extraordinarily Earth-like meteorology and geology. Images haveshown a complex network of narrowdrainage channels running from brighterhighlands to lower, flatter, dark regions.These channels merge into river systemsrunning into lakebeds featuring offshore'islands' and 'shoals' remarkably similar tothose on Earth.

"We now have the key to understandingwhat shapes Titan's landscape," said DrTomasko, adding: "Geological evidence forprecipitation, erosion, mechanical abrasionand other fluvial activity says that thephysical processes shaping Titan are muchthe same as those shaping Earth."

Data provided in part by the GasChromatograph and Mass Spectrometer(GCMS) and Surface Science Package(SSP) support Dr Tomasko's conclusions.Huygens' data show strong evidence forliquids flowing on Titan. However, the fluidinvolved is methane, a simple organiccompound that can exist as a liquid or gas atTitan's very cold temperatures, rather thanwater as on Earth. Titan's rivers and lakesappear dry at the moment, but rain mayhave occurred not long ago.

Deceleration and penetration dataprovided by the SSP indicate that thematerial beneath the surface's crust has theconsistency of loose sand, possibly theresult of methane rain falling on the surfaceover eons, or the wicking of liquids frombelow towards the surface.

Heat generated by Huygens warmed thesoil beneath the probe and both the GCMSand SSP instruments detected bursts ofmethane gas boiled out of surface material,reinforcing the evidence for methane'sprincipal role in Titan's geology andmeteorology.

In addition, DISR surface images showsmall rounded pebbles in a dry riverbed.Spectra measurements (colour) areconsistent with a composition of dirty waterice rather than silicate rocks. However, theseform a rock-like solid at Titan'stemperatures.

Titan's soil appears to consist at least inpart of precipitated deposits of the organichaze that shrouds the planet. This darkmaterial settles out of the atmosphere.When washed off high elevations bymethane rain, it concentrates at the bottomof the drainage channels and riverbedscontributing to the dark areas seen in DISRimages.

Stunning new evidence based on findingatmospheric argon 40 strongly suggests thatTitan has experienced volcanic activitygenerating not lava, as on Earth, but waterice and ammonia.

Thus, while many of Earth's familiargeophysical processes occur on Titan, thechemistry involved is quite different.Instead of liquid water, Titan has liquidmethane. Instead of silicate rocks, Titan hasfrozen water ice. Instead of dirt, Titan hashydrocarbon particles settling out of theatmosphere, and instead of lava, Titanianvolcanoes spew very cold ice. Titan istherefore an extraordinary world, havingEarth-like geophysical processes operatingon exotic materials in very alien conditions.

“This is only the beginning; these datawill live for many years to come and theywill keep the scientists very very busy", saysJean-Pierre Lebreton, ESA's HuygensProject Scientist and Mission Manager.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is acooperative endeavour by NASA, ESA andASI, the Italian space agency. The JetPropulsion Laboratory (JPL), a division ofthe California Institute of Technology inPasadena, designed, developed, assembledand is operating the Cassini orbiter, whileESA was responsible for the Huygensatmospheric probe. r

Europe at the New Frontier

The first colour image of Titan’s surface, with centimetrescales superimposed to characterise surface features(Credit: ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)


Courtesy of AGU/D.N. Baker, Univ. of Colorado

Laakso 3/3/05 10:13 AM Page 10

esa bulletin 121 - february 2005 11

Cluster

T he four-satellite Cluster mission serves as both a‘microscope’ and a ‘telescope’ for magnetosphericscientists. Using its suite of state-of-the-art

instruments, it is providing a close-up view of complex small-scale physical processes occurring around the Earth. Theseprocesses are often reflections of other, sometimes violentprocesses that are taking place much further away from ourspacecraft, which means that Cluster also serves as a‘telescope’ for observing those more distant processes.

IntroductionWe have been investigating the Earth’s magnetospherewith space probes for nearly 50 years, allowing us todraw a general picture of the space environment thatsurrounds our planet. The origin of the magnetospherelies in the Earth’s internal magnetic dynamo, andwithout the solar wind the picture would be quitesimple. However, with the solar wind – a magnetisedsupersonic stream of electrons and ions continuouslyescaping from the Sun, which interacts with the Earth’smagnetic field – the picture becomes highly complex.Under the solar wind’s influence, the shape of theEarth’s natural magnetic field lines is transformed froma dipolar form into a large tail-like structure which is

Cluster– A microscopeand a telescopefor studyingspace plasmasHarri Laakso, Philippe Escoubet, Hermann OpgenoorthDirectorate of Scientific Programmes, ESTEC, Noordwijk,The Netherlands

Juergen Volpp, Siegmar PallaschkeDirectorate of Operations and Infrastructure, ESOC,Darmstadt, Germany

Mike HapgoodRutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, United Kingdom


Science


called ‘the magnetosphere’ (see adjacentsketch).

At the same time as the solar wind isdistorting the magnetosphere’s outerboundaries, the ultraviolet and X-raysemanating from the Sun are ionising theEarth’s upper atmosphere, making it highlyelectrically conductive. This region, knownas ‘the ionosphere’, is coupled to themagnetosphere via the Earth’s magneticfield lines. Above 1000 km altitude fromthe ground, the neutral and plasma particledensities are sufficiently low for themedium to be fully conductive. At higheraltitudes in the magnetosphere, theresistance in the plasma can suddenlyincrease in certain localised regions,giving rise to some of the most fascinatingprocesses that occur in space.

The Sun-Earth ConnectionMany details of how our terrestrialenvironment responds to variations in solarradiation and solar wind, and theirimplications for humans and man-madetechnologies in space and on the ground,remain unresolved. Understanding andpredicting such conditions in spacerequires multi-point measurements atcritical locations in the magnetosphere andsolar wind.

Basically all of the unresolved Sun-Earth connection issues can be groupedunder three fundamental questions:

(i) How and why does the Sun vary?(ii) How does the Earth’s environment

respond to such variations? (iii) What are the consequences for

humanity?

The Cluster mission objectives belongprimarily to the second category.

The four Cluster satellites have beenorbiting the Earth since August 2000, andtheir observations have improved and ofteneven fundamentally changed our previousunderstanding of near-Earth space. Theprimary aim of the mission is tocharacterise and model the near-Earthplasma regions and boundaries, as well asto understand the physical processes takingplace there. Cluster cannot solve all of the

mysteries of the Sun-Earth connection, butit is providing us with the first real 3-Dmeasurements in space that allow us toseparate the temporal and spatial features.Some of the key issues are related to theexistence and characteristics of magneticreconnection, plasma turbulence, andcharged-particle acceleration. These arethe main processes that control the transferof energy, momentum and particles fromone region of space to another – forinstance, between the solar wind and themagnetosphere, or between the magneto-sphere and the Earth’s atmosphere.

Electric CurrentsOne of the most difficult measurements inspace is the determination of the electriccurrents that extend over vast distances inthree dimensions. The magnitudes of thecurrents are very large, typically in therange of 1-10 million Amperes, but as thecross-sections of the current systems arealso large, Cluster needs to be able todetect very weak current densities,typically not more than a few 100 nanoAmperes per square metre.

In principle, the currents can be

estimated by calculating the fluxes ofelectrons and ions, but in fact the onlyreliable method in space is to use Ampere’sLaw. This technique is based on accuratemagnetic-field measurements at fourpoints, from which one can calculate theelectric current crossing the Clusterconstellation. The Cluster spacecraft carryvery stable and sensitive magnetometersthat can provide the requiredmeasurements. Unfortunately, this doesnot always work in practice, either becausethe physics turns out to be more complexthan described by Ampere’s Law, orbecause the separations between the fourspacecraft are not optimal with respect tothe size of the current region being studied.By varying the spacecraft separationsduring the mission, we have been able todetermine the strengths and directions ofthe electric currents in many regions, andthese data are of fundamental importancefor magnetospheric modelling.

Electric FieldsAnother difficult task is the measurement of electric fields, which are needed tounderstand how the charged particles flow

A sketch of the Earth’s magnetosphere; the Sun is to the left. The distance of the magnetopause on the dayside is approximately 10 Re(where Re is the Earth’s radius, equal to 6370 km), while the bow shock is at 14 Re. The long tail of the magnetosphere in the nightsidecan continue for more than 100 Re. Cluster orbits the Earth at between 4 and 20 Re distance, during which the four satellites encountermost of the key magnetospheric regions. The orbit shown in red is for February-March, and half a year later the apogee is in themagnetotail



Cluster

Comparative Magnetospheres

By understanding how the Earth’s magnetosphere functions and how it is driven by the energy from the solar wind, we can alsobetter model other magnetosphere-like systems that are common not only in our own Solar System but throughout the Universein stars, galaxies, etc. More than 99% of material in space appears as plasma, or an electrically charged gaseous medium. Thereare a multitude of complex physical processes occurring in such a medium, and our geospace is the only place where we canmonitor and investigate them in-situ. The observational problem, however, is that the processes occur in spatially limited regions,their locations are constantly moving, and they occur for only short periods. One therefore has to be in the right place at the righttime, which is very difficult, and so one needs to collect large data sets over various time and spatial scales in many locationsin order to fully understand, model and predict the occurrence of the processes.

Having some knowledge of how the Earth’s magnetosphere behaves, it is fascinating to visit other magnetospheres to observesimilarities or dissimilarities between them and the Earth. Venus and Mars (and perhaps Pluto) are the only planets in the Solar

System that have no magnetospheredue to the lack of an internal magneticdipole. In such cases, the solar windinteracts directly with the atmosphere.Single space probes have been used toget a view of the magnetospheres ofthe other planets, and theinterpretation of such data is mademuch easier by observing theprocesses in detail first at the Earth,especially using multiple satelliteslike Cluster.

The Sun also has its own magneto-sphere, called the ‘heliosphere’. Thesolar wind expands to very largedistances of the order of 100–1000 AUin the Solar System (1 AU is thedistance between the Sun and theEarth), and this expansion iseventually stopped by the pressure ofthe interstellar plasma. Currently afew satellites launched in the early1970’s are approaching the edge of theheliosphere and will soon be able tostudy the coupling between it and theinterstellar wind, which is somewhatsimilar to the interaction between theEarth’s magnetosphere and the solarwind.

Magnetospheres, or magnetized plasma regions, are common in our Universe. These examples show simple models for Mercury, Earth, pulsar, and Jupiter, whose sizes are within a few orders ofmagnitude. However, similar systems also occur on larger scales, such as the heliosphere formed by the solar magnetic field as well as the galaxy NGC 1265 (courtesy of C. O’Dea & F. Owen,NRAO/AUI).


Science


The Cluster Mission and Its Instruments

Cluster is the first space physics mission to be made up of several identical spacecraft. Each of them carries a complete suite ofinstruments to measure particles, magnetic fields, electric fields, and electromagnetic waves. In addition a unique spacecraftpotential-control instrument (which keeps the electrical potential of the spacecraft themselves at typically 5-7 Volts) allows thescientists to monitor low-energy electrons and ions in the plasma, which would otherwise not be possible.

In any region of the magnetosphere the spatial scales (i.e. the distances over which the plasma characteristics change) appear to behighly variable. This complexity is increased by varying time scales, which makes sound interpretations highly challenging. HavingCluster measurements at four different points is fundamentally important here, although ideally many more than four satellites areneeded to measure different scales simultaneously. So, having only four satellites, it is essential to change their separationsregularly, because the most important scale length for one region can be completely wrong for another. For changing the sidelengths of the tetrahedron-shaped formation in which the Cluster satellites fly, each satellite originally had 63 kg of fuel onboardto perform the necessary manoeuvres; at the moment, approximately half of that fuel is left. A change of constellation from onetetrahedron to another requires a complicated set of over 40 individual manoeuvres that last approximately 6 weeks. During thefirst two years of the mission, two constellation changes were performed annually. Since 2003, only one constellation change peryear has been made.

The triangles show schematically the size of separation distances of the four Cluster satellites, with the actual separation distances in kilometres given below the triangles. The masses show how muchfuel was consumed during the manoeuvres conducted for each new tetrahedron constellation (Courtesy of D. Sieg, ESOC)

The Eleven Instruments on Each of the Four Cluster SpacecraftInstrument Principal Investigator

ASPOC Spacecraft potential control K. Torkar (IWF, A)

CIS Ion composition, 0<E<40 keV H. Rème (CESR, F)

DWP Wave processor and particle correlator H. Alleyne (Univ. Sheffield, UK)

EDI Plasma drift velocity G. Paschmann (MPE, D)

EFW Electric field and waves M. André (IRFU, S)

FGM Magnetometer A. Balogh (IC, UK)

PEACE Electrons, 0<E<30 keV A. Fazakerley (MSSL, UK)

RAPID High-energy electrons and ions,

20<Ee<400 keV, 10<Ei<1500 keV P. Daly (MPAe, D)

STAFF Magnetic and electric fluctuations N. Cornilleau (CETP, F)

WBD Wideband detector D. Gurnett (Iowa, USA)

WHISPER Electron density and waves P. Décréau (LPCE, F)



within the magnetosphere and how theyare accelerated. Although electric potentialdifferences across many regions can be ofthe order of 10 - 100 kilovolts, the actualelectric fields appear to be small – just 0.1-10 millivolts – as the regions are verywide. Their detection therefore requireshighly sophisticated instruments. Each ofthe Cluster satellites carry two state-of-artinstruments that can monitor such weakfields. One measures potential differencesbetween electric sensors located at the tipsof 44 metre-long booms, and each satellite

carries four such booms. The otherinstrument measures the drift of a weakbeam of 1 keV electrons emitted by theinstrument, from which the electric fieldscan be determined.

Scientific HighlightsBow shockShocks are a common and importantphenomenon in the Universe as theyaccelerate particles to very high speeds.Close to the Earth, shocks appear, forinstance, at the fronts of massive coronalmass ejections released by the Sun. Theseevents cause magnetic storms at the Earth

and produce plenty of high-energyparticles, which are eventually trapped inthe radiation belts that surround it. At adistance of approximately 14 Earth radiifrom our planet towards the Sun, there is apermanent shock region, known as the‘bow shock’. It is formed by the interactionof the Earth’s magnetosphere with thestreaming supersonic solar wind. At thebow shock, the solar wind is rapidlydecelerated and the interplanetarymagnetic field is compressed.

For a detailed understanding of the physicsof shocks, one must have measurements onboth sides of the shock as well as in theshock itself. The Cluster mission is thereforehelping us to model shocks not only in frontof the Earth’s magnetosphere, but alsoelsewhere in the Universe. The position ofthe bow shock is subject to a continuousback-and-forth motion due to pressurevariations in the solar wind, which helpsCluster in its task because it means that thespacecraft usually make several crossingsonce they approach the shock. As the foursatellites are far apart, one gets simultaneousobservations from all sides of the shock.

Cluster has been able to measure thespeed and thickness of the Earth’s bowshock for the first time. Based on about100 bow-shock crossings, it has beenpossible to show that the shock front’sthickness is proportional to the gyro-radiusof solar wind ions*. At the shock, theelectrons and ions get separated, setting upstrong electric currents. Again for the firsttime, Cluster has observed such currents,which are typically of the order of onemillion Amperes.

CuspsThe polar cusps are the two magnetic‘funnels’ over the Earth’s north and southmagnetic poles, where particles from thesolar wind actually penetrate themagnetosphere and reach the Earth’satmosphere. Cluster has observed so-called ‘magnetic reconnection’ in theneighbourhood of a polar cusp.

Magnetic reconnection occurs whentwo regions of oppositely directedmagnetic fields interact and eventuallybecome interconnected. It is a fundamentalprocess in space and astrophysical plasmasthrough which plasmas of different originsare able to mix and become acceleratedinto energetic jets. It allows the transfer ofcharged particles between two differentmagnetised regions of space, for instancethe solar wind and the Earth’smagnetosphere. This process acceleratesions in both directions, so that theprecipitating population in the cuspproduces a ‘bright spot’ near noon, whichcan be observed on Earth at high latitudes(66 - 70 deg) in the form of the spectacular‘northern lights’.

On 18 March 2002, NASA’s IMAGEspacecraft detected such a ‘bright spot’ inthe northern polar cusp at the same time asCluster detected the typical characteristicsof polar-cusp reconnection. This was thefirst time that the reconnection process hadbeen observed in-situ together with itseffect on the Earth’s ionosphere andatmosphere.

Cluster

Density transition from downstream to upstream across the Earth’s bow shock in the solar wind. The green line is a theoretical fit; thered vertical lines show the thickness of the shock (Courtesy of S. Bale, University of California at Berkeley)

* Charged particles gyrate about magnetic field lines with a period thatdepends on the size of the magnetic field and the mass of the particle.The radius of the gyro motion depends on the gyro period and velocity ofthe gyrating particle.


Science


Kelvin-Helmholtz wavesWhen two adjacent media flow at differentspeeds, waves build up at their interfaceand a phenomenon known as a ‘Kelvin-Helmholtz instability’ occurs. The windblowing across the surface of the oceancauses waves due to this instability.Similarly in space, waves appear at theinterface between two plasma media whenthe difference in velocity is large enough,for instance at the Earth’s magnetopause.

The Cluster satellites have observedKelvin-Helmholtz waves several times, butjust recently they have discovered vorticesin the Earth’s magnetosphere caused by theinstability. Normally, Kelvin-Helmholtzwaves only distort the boundary andcannot cause particles to be transportedacross it. It has been suggested that thevortices let solar-wind particles enter themagnetosphere. Cluster’s discoverystrengthens the likelihood of this scenario,but does not yet show the precisemechanism. This is an exciting resultbecause, with the interplanetary magneticfield and the Earth’s magnetic field beingaligned, the magnetopause is presentlyassumed to be an impenetrable barrier tothe flow of solar wind, which is merelydiverted around the magnetopause.

Reconnection in the magnetotailThe tail of the magnetosphere, called ‘themagnetotail’, appears to be an explosiveregion due magnetic reconnection and asource of highly energetic particles, some ofwhich can have energies of more than 10 MeV*. There are many unsolvedmysteries associated with the reconnectionprocess in the tail, such as the actual triggerfor the process and the formation of a thincurrent sheet that Cluster has observed tooccur before the reconnection can take place.

The four Cluster spacecraft havesurrounded the reconnection region in thecentral magnetotail several times, exploringthe core region where ions and electrons getdecoupled. A change of magnetic curvatureacross the reconnection site has also beendetected. In addition, strong electric fieldsare observed near the site, which couldexplain the particle acceleration usuallyobserved at greater distances from the site.

One of the precursor processes toreconnection is the thinning of the currentsheet in the centre of the tail where thereconnection process is later going to takeplace. Recently, Cluster made its firstmeasurements of such an event, showingthat just before reconnection occurred themaximum current intensity was about 30times its usual value, and that the half-thickness of the current sheet was onlyabout 300 km, instead of the usual few1000 km. When the current sheet becomesthis thin, the motion of the ions is nolonger governed by the magnetic field, andtherefore they cannot be described as afluid. The electrons, however, do stillbehave as a fluid and are believed to carrythe main current in such a situation.

Once the reconnection process starts inthe middle of the tail, a large number ofcharged particles are energized and senttowards the Earth. Magnetic field linesguide them to precipitate into the polaratmospheres, causing intense auroraldisplays. At the same time, a huge volumeof tail plasma appears as an isolated‘plasmoid’, which is ejected down the tailfrom the Earth into the solar wind. Clusterhas already observed the formation of suchplasmoids several times.

The consequences of reconnection arealso observed in the Sun’s atmosphere.Solar flares, caused by reconnection, arethe most energetic explosions in the SolarSystem. Energetic particles accelerated inthe flares escape into interplanetary spaceand pose a danger to astronauts, the crewsof high-flying aircraft, and electronicinstruments operated in space. Similarenergy-release processes take place in othercosmic objects, such as stars, pulsars, blackholes, quasars, and galactic accretion discs.

Remote sensing and interferometry The magnetosphere is a strong source of awide range of electromagnetic emissions.Some of the waves are trapped within theEarth’s magnetosphere, but some, such asthe non-thermal continuum radiation (NTC)and auroral kilometric radiation (AKR), cantravel large distances. There are manyunsolved issues concerning the generationof such waves and Cluster is also playing animportant role here. The radio waves

In this three-dimensional view of the Earth’s magnetosphere, the curly features sketched on the boundary layer are the Kelvin-Helmholtz vortices discovered by Cluster. They originate where two adjacent flows travel with different speeds. The arrows show thedirection of the magnetic field (Courtesy of H. Hasegawa, Dartmouth College)

* 1 electron volt (eV) corresponds to a temperature of approximately 10 000 Kelvin. In the Sun’s atmosphere, the particles have energies of 10 - 100 eV. In the Earth’s upper atmosphere particle energies are of theorder of 0.1 eV. In the magnetosphere, typical energies for protons andelectrons are in the range 0.1 - 10 keV. In the radiation belts, someparticles are relativistic, so that the electron energies are 0.1 - 1 MeV andhigher and the proton energies 10 - 100 MeV and higher.



recorded by Cluster and other satellites inthe Solar System have been converted intosound waves and can be played athttp://www-pw.physics.uiowa.edu/space-audio/.

The AKR (20kHz – 2MHz) is thestrongest signal generated around theEarth and can easily be detected from verylarge distances, for instance by an aliensociety. The Earth’s magnetosphere is theonly place where we can study it in detailand Cluster’s orbit is ideally placed to lookfor its source. The wavelength of AKR is ofthe order of a kilometre, hence the name.The power of emission is of the order of abillion Watts, which greatly exceeds thepower of any radio station. However, thewaves cannot propagate through theEarth’s ionosphere and are therefore notdetectable on the ground, and hence cannotdisturb our radio transmissions.

By using simultaneous four-pointCluster wave measurements, the exactlocation of AKR’s source has beenidentified. Similar emissions are detectedat all magnetised bodies in the SolarSystem, such as Jupiter and Saturn wherethey appear with different wavelengths.For instance, Jupiter’s emission is calledJovian hectometric radiation. Measure-ments of such emissions can also be usedto detect extra-solar planets.

Future PlansCurrently the Cluster mission is in a firstextension phase that will end in December2005. The spacecraft are still workingperfectly and their payloads are in goodhealth, with 41 of the total of 44instruments still working, and expected tocontinue to do so until 2010. The sciencecommunity is therefore looking forward tothe possibility of a second extensioncovering the years 2005–2009, for whichthere is substantial scientific justification,not least to: (i) achieve full coverage of thedayside magnetosphere at large scales,(ii) start a new phase of multi-scaleobservations, (iii) visit new magneto-spheric regions, (iv) collaborate with newmissions, and (v) collect data from a largepart of a solar cycle.

The first point is obviously offundamental importance to complete theCluster mission, because observationshave not yet been collected with spacecraftseparations of 10 000 km or more. Thesecond objective is intended to collectobservations on both small and large scalesat the same time, by moving two spacecraftclose to one another while keeping theseparations between three of the satellitesat 10 000 km. Such measurements arescientifically very exciting.

Due to solar perturbations, the apogeeof the Cluster orbit drifts slowly towardsthe southern hemisphere. So far this hasbeen corrected with special spacecraftmanoeuvres, but in the future this drift willbe allowed to continue, taking the satellitesto encounters with new magnetosphericregions that have previously only beenstudied with single satellites. Plenty ofexciting scientific discoveries cantherefore be expected during this phase.

Collaboration with other missions isalso fundamentally important to Cluster asthe magnetosphere makes up a vast volumeof space. In 2004, the two satellites thatmake up the China-ESA Double Starmission were put into favourable orbitswith respect to the Cluster mission and carry similar or complementaryinstrumentation. In October 2006, NASA’sfive-satellite Themis mission will belaunched to study magnetosphericsubstorm phenomena. The Cluster andThemis apogees will be on opposite sidesof the Earth, so that when Cluster ismonitoring the solar wind or the daysidemagnetosphere, Themis will in themagnetotail, and vice versa.

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of theInternational Geophysical Year, theInternational Polar Year will be organizedin 2007–2008 and the InternationalHeliospheric Year in 2007. During these years, spacecraft, ground-basedobservatories and theoretical modellingwill be brought together in a determinedattempt to fully understand the Sun’seffects on the Earth’s environment. Clustercan make significant contributions to thateffort! r

Cluster

Magnetic reconnection occurs frequently in the magnetotail,creating a magnetically neutral region called the neutral line. As a result, on over-stretched field lines earthward of the neutralline, a large amount of plasma is accelerated towards the Earth,causing fantastic auroral displays in the polar regions.Simultaneously, on the other side of the neutral line a vastplasmoid is ejected down the tail into the solar wind (Courtesy of J. Slavin, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)


Wittig 4/19/05 10:21 AM Page 20


AmerHis

Satellite telecommunications has now reached anadvanced stage of maturity with nearly 40 satellite

operators controlling around 250 satellites ingeostationary orbit. The services that those operatorsprovide range from backbone trunk networks in thetelephony and data fields, to the distribution andbroadcasting of thousands of TV channels to hundreds ofmillions of viewers around the World.

Successful as they are today, satellite systems are on thebrink of yet another major revolution that will doubtless alsohave a significant impact on our daily lives in the near future.This revolution will be brought about by the provision of anew generation of cost-effective broadband interactiveservices, initially to larger corporations, later to small andmedium-sized enterprises, and eventually to private homes.

IntroductionThe basis for the introduction of these new services liesfirstly in the availability of precisely targetted multiplespot-beam coverage from satellites, allowing greateroptimisation of the use of the satellite’s resources interms of power and frequency spectrum, and secondlyin the consolidation of open standards based on thesuccessful DVB-S/DVB-RCS suite. Designing aroundsuch open standards guarantees that the receiving

Manfred Wittig, Felix Petz, Frank Zeppenfeldt, Stephane Pirio,Ian Davis, Jean-Pierre Balley & Jose Maria CasasTelecommunications Department, Directorate of EU andIndustrial Programmes, ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands

AmerHis: The FirstSwitchboard in Space

Wittig 4/19/05 10:21 AM Page 21

European Union and Industrial Programmes


terminals and services will be availablefrom many vendors, which is fundamentalto the creation of an open competitivemarket and the delivery of economies ofscale.

The consolidation of the DVB-basedopen-standard approach has paved the wayfor the introduction of a new satellitepayload and system architecture, wherebya number of transmitting/receivingtransponders on the same satellite can beinterconnected via an onboard digitalswitch. In this way, the network topologybecomes star-like in form, centred on thenode constituted by the satellite and its

Good wishes to Amazonas, on the fairing of the Proton launcher

Good wishes to Amazonas, on the fairing of the Proton launcher

The AmerHis switchboard in space The Amazonas coverage zones

Wittig 4/19/05 10:21 AM Page 22


transponders. This new architecture allowsoptimisation of the resources assigned toeach individual transponder in terms ofcoverage, power and bandwidth.

The ESA Telecommunications Long-Term Plan foresees greater cooperationwith telecommunications operators inorder to foster the introduction of newpayload technologies and services. As partof this process, ESA entered into anagreement with the Spanish companyHispasat, with the cooperation of Spain’sCDTI (Centro para el DesarrolloTecnológico Industrial), for theimplementation of a regenerativemultimedia system, known as the‘AmerHis System’, onboard Hispasat’s‘Amazonas’ satellite, which was launchedon 5 August 2004.

The AmerHis SystemAmerHis is an advanced satellitecommunication system based aroundAlcatel’s 9343 DVB On-Board Processor.This processor has the demodulation,decoding, switching, encoding andmodulation capabilities needed for the fourtransponders on Amazonas. Eachtransponder covers one of the fourgeographical regions served by the satellite- namely Europe, Brazil, North and SouthAmerica.

The complete AmerHis system consistsof:– The regenerative payload onboard

Amazonas.– A network management system,

containing the Network Control Centre(NCC) and associated managementcontrol, responsible for managing theonboard resources and the userterminals.

– User terminals (Return-ChannelSatellite Terminals, or RCSTs) orientedtowards the commercial demonstrationof new services.

– Gateways (RCST Satellite Gateways, orRSGWs) that provide the system withaccess to terrestrial networks.

With AmerHis, the satellite operator is ableto offer broadband connectivity via asingle hop to users anywhere within the

four geographical areas covered byAmazonas. This is a great improvementcompared with existing satellite-basednetworks, which require a double hop via aground-based hub. The AmerHis conceptputs that hub onboard the satellite, savingthe delay of about 250 milliseconds causedby the additional second hop. Theregenerative payload thereby enables real-time broadband connections between smalluser terminals.

This unique combination of onboardprocessing and full compatibility with theopen standards of DVB-S (downlink) andDVB-RCS (uplink) gives an AmerHis-equipped telecommunications satelliteunprecedented potential compared with itsrivals relying on conventional systemarchitectures.

In summary, the key advantages ofAmerHis for the user are:– Provision of direct ‘end-to-end’

connectivity between any two users indifferent regions via a single satellitehop. This allows real-time voice andvideo services, as well as reducingbandwidth usage.

– Full flexibility both for theinterconnection of coverage areas andpayload-capacity management, allowingoptimum exploitation of availableonboard resources. Thanks to thedynamic resource-allocation process,

the system supports predictablesymmetric up- and downlink traffic, aswell as intermittent ‘bursty’ trafficgenerated by a large number of users.

– The regenerative nature of the AmerHispayload, and the utilisation of DVB-Ssaturated carriers on each downlink,provide substantial improvements whenusing the AmerHis-enabled tran-sponders. These improvements arereflected both in the enhancedthroughput capacity and the reducedreceive-antenna size requirements forthe users.

These features, combined with the use ofstandard low-cost and high-performancebroadband interactive user terminals,represent a major qualitative stepforward in the successful developmentof interactive multimedia services viasatellite.

The Services Offered by AmerHisThe great flexibility for managing andselling AmerHis capacity is such that all ofthe main telecommunications players willbenefit from this advanced technology.Real- and non-real-time multimediaservices and applications can be providedon readily available DVB-S/DVB-RCScompatible terminals. The system permitsthe assignment of resources to differentsubnetworks in a very flexible manner andallows user transmission rates rangingfrom 512 kbit/s to 8 Mbit/s. The systemsupports Internet Protocol (IP) based aswell as native MPEG-based services, withefficient mechanisms for the provision ofuni- and multicast services, and thepossibility to define various quality-of-service levels to meet different user needs.

AmerHis supports mesh connectivityand star connectivity, in both cases withjust one satellite hop. Unidirectional orbidirectional point-to-point connectionsare possible in both cases. These types ofconnections can either be established ondemand by the terminals and the gateways,or by the Management System. A givenconnection can be assigned one of threepriorities within AmerHis - low priority,

AmerHis

AmerHis provides connectivity between spot-beam coverage areaswithout the need for double hops between ground and spacecraft

Wittig 4/19/05 10:21 AM Page 23



The AmerHis Elements

Space Segment – The regenerative payloadThe AmerHis payload is made up of a novel set of On-Board Processing(OBP) technologies, which are being flown for the first time on the Amazonassatellite. The key feature of AmerHis is that the payload is regenerative andprovides unique connectivity possibilities via its ‘switchboard in the sky’functionality.

The uplink format to the OBP is MF-TDMA according to the DVB-RCSstandard (MPEG-2 option), with up to 64 carriers per transponder. Data ratesof 512 kbit/s, 1, 2, 4 and 8 Mbit/s can be combined in the same transponder.The downlink format is according to the DVB-S standard, with a maximumdata rate of 55 Mbit/s per transponder. The OBP, which relies on complexdigital signal-processing functions implemented in ASICs, offers full routingflexibility between uplink and downlink channels using dynamic capacitymanagement.

The AmerHis payload installed on Amazonas consists of eight boxes: the downconverter, the onboard processor, four modulators and two Ku-band filters.

Ground SegmentThe AmerHis ground segment consists of user terminals to access the system, gateways interfacing to terrestrial services and amanagement system to configure and manage the network.

User TerminalsA Return Channel Satellite Terminal (RCST) provides access to other users, as well as external access to terrestrial networks andService Providers. The peak uplink data raw bit rates for different terminal classes are:- 512 kbit/s for Class-1- 1.036 Mbit/s for Class-2- 2.073 Mbit/s for Class-3- 4.417 Mbit/s for Class-4.

The antenna and Solid-State Power Amplifier(SSPA) sizes vary from 1.2 to 3 metres and 2 to8 Watts, respectively, depending upon the classtype and coverage area.

An RCST can support both guaranteed rate anddelay and best-effort classes of service. Thenetwork quality-of-service mechanism in theRCST performs prioritisation of IP flows andselects the most suitable transmissionparameters for the application in question. Thisprovides priority to mission-critical datatransactions or video or voice transmissions,which require faster turnaround, whileproviding lower priority to less-time-sensitivetraffic such as e-mail and web surfing. AmerHis user terminals (RCSTs) manufactured by NERA (Norway)

and EMS Technologies (Canada)

One of the AmerHis ASICs

Wittig 4/19/05 10:21 AM Page 24


AmerHis

These terminals are based on standard DVB-RCSproducts and are already available from two companies.The point-to-point connectivity provided by theAmerHis regenerative payloads requires a call-handlingprotocol, which is now being considered for DVB-RCSstandardisation. The AmerHis RCSTs from differentvendors are interoperable, i.e. both terminals can workwith the same hub, and have a call-handling procedureimplemented.

GatewaysAn RCST Satellite Gateway (RSGW) providesAmerHis users with internetworking capabilities toexternal networks (PSTN, ISDN, Internet). In effect,the RSGW is the hub in an access network with a startopology. It incorporates a standard low-cost andslightly modified RCST, which is an attractive solutionfor medium to small service providers. It has beendesigned to share its satellite and terrestrial bandwidthresources with a large number of simultaneous activesubscribers.

The gateway support commonly used interfaces to the terrestrial networks such as ISDN, Ethernet and ATM. To support the deliveryof business-class data services, the RSGW is able to provide service guarantees to subscribers based on different quality-of-servicecriteria for the different subscription levels.

The peak uplink transmission raw bit rate of the RSGW is at least 8 Mbits/s (2 x 4 Mbit/s terminals). The RSGW maximum downlinkthroughput at IP level is at least 8 Mbit/s. In order to offer low-cost RSGWs targeted specifically at small Internet Service Providers(ISPs), a standard RSGW can be simplified by not offering voice/video services and reducing the peak uplink rate to 2 Mbit/s.

Management SystemThe Management System consists of a Network Control Centre (NCC) and a Network Management Centre (NMC). The NCCcontrols the interactive network, services satellite access requests from users and manages the OBP configuration. An NCC Return-

Channel Satellite Terminal (RCST)provides terminal access to the satellite.The NMC handles the systemconfiguration and manages the AmerHisnetwork elements, supporting remoteconfiguration and monitoring of theNCC, user terminals, gateways and OBP,as well as providing fault, configuration,performance and security features for allelements.

Connection-control management func-tions both support permanent connectionset-ups and handle on-demandconnection requests, such as callestablishment, call modification and callrelease.

An AmerHis gateway

The AmerHis management system

NETWORKMANAGEMENT

SYSTEM

NETWORK CONTROL CENTRE (NCC)

Wittig 4/19/05 10:21 AM Page 25



high priority or high priority jitter-sensitive - each of which is associated witha specific set of traffic parameters. Anadmission-control function ensuresoptimal use of the available capacity andprovision of the best possible service forthe different types of application.

The physical capacity of AmerHis isdistributed over Virtual Private Networks(VPNs). Each VPN can be allocated adedicated set of logical capacity, reflectingthe service provider’s needs, or it can sharea set with other VPNs. Any VPN can alsotake advantage of the AmerHis broadcastcapability.

AmerHis is therefore creating a new erafor relationships between Internet NetworkAccess Providers (INAPs), serviceproviders and customers by offering muchgreater flexibility than any other satellite-based system so far. Being a connection-oriented system, it allows full control overthe applications crossing the network andthe amount of resources allocated to thoseapplications. In this way, over-provisioningcan be avoided and billing is triggered onlywhen applications are really using thenetwork. This opens the door for newbusiness models, reflected in turn in theService-Level Agreement (SLA) betweenthe INAP and service provider or serviceprovider and customer.

The following are some typical AmerHisapplication scenarios:

Internet Service ProvidersIn this scenario, the Internet ServiceProviders (ISP) manage their own low-costgateway and provide reliable Internetaccess to subscribers. Value-addedservices, such as Voice over IP (VoIP) orvideo conferencing based on the ITUH.323 standard, can be provided toindividual customers via a simpleconfiguration. ISPs can choose to offertheir own SLAs, be they flat-rate, volume-based or based on a certain quality-of-service profile.

The AmerHis gateways are intended to below-cost and have minimum infrastructurerequirements. The ISPs therefore have theflexibility to locate their gateways indifferent AmerHis coverage regions and

thereby offer more reliable Internet accessand/or more attractive tariffs.

A novel feature of AmerHis is thesupport it provides for multicast services,allowing streaming contents to bedelivered to a large number of subscriberssimultaneously. The AmerHis gatewayssupport all of the necessary functionalityfor implementing these services accordingto the latest IETF (Internet EngineeringTask Force) standards. The AmerHisnetwork can support all of the variousdeployement methods currently used byISPs, such as private and public IPaddressing support, NAT (NetworkAddress Translation), authentication andbilling support.

Corporate ServicesCompanies with multiple branch offices inEurope, Brazil, North and South Americacan easily set up their own Virtual PrivateNetworks (VPN) and share their allocatedcapacity between all offices.

An important feature of the AmerHissystem for corporate communications isthe high quality of service that can be

offered for business-grade video and voiceconferencing and the possibility of alwaysreaching each branch office with a singlesatellite hop. In addition, access to theISDN and POTS terrestrial networks isprovided via the AmerHis gateways.

The AmerHis system allows thescheduling of specific connectivityrequirements, such as the daily distributionof newspaper copy to printing facilities indifferent geographical regions.

Video ServicesThe AmerHis payload offers multiplexingand de-multiplexing of MPEG-2 transportstreams and is therefore not only capable ofoffering IP services over MPEG-2, but alsoallows the routing of video. Contributionscan be made from different uplink stations

The AmerHis in-orbit testing (IOT) station, antenna and shelterand (right) the ground-support equipment used for IOT

Wittig 4/19/05 10:21 AM Page 26


and, depending on the onboard switchconfiguration, duplicated and sent tomultiple destinations if necessary, using theDVB-S standard for direct-to-Home (DTH)services. Business television services,occasional-use services and videocontributions from smaller terminals canall be supported more easily by exploitingthese capabilities.

Early AmerHis OperationsThe Amazonas satellite was launched on 5 August 2004 from Baikonur inKazakhstan by a Proton launch vehicle.One of the first tasks in the Amazonas in-orbit testing (IOT), which started on the 11August, was to upload the initial settingsfor the onboard processor via thetelecommand link. The AmerHis payload’sperformance was verified from Hispasat’sArganda ground station, southeast ofMadrid, and a signal emitted by a station inBrazil was received. After extensive testingit was concluded that the AmerHisregenerative payload had survived thelaunch and was performing as expected.

All of the network elements required forthe first AmerHis pilot operations arecurrently available. The intention is thus to

verify the whole AmerHis network’soperation and performance starting in2005 and to provide the Amazonas satelliteoperator Hispasat with a pilot network forearly commercial customers.

In addition to this commercial use ofAmerHis capacity, ESA is also planningseveral projects geared to furthertechnology and application development,including:– Technology projects to look into the

characteristics of the current system,propose and perform additional tests,and address further enhancements of theground segment.

– Application projects are expected to usetypical AmerHis features such asquality-of-service, multicasting anddemonstrate that applications willbenefit from these. Such trials willexploit AmerHis’s functionality toconvince service providers of the addedvalue of onboard processing and anadvanced ground segment.

One potential pilot project is to providecommunications capabilities to hospitalsin the Amazon rainforest region. An EU-sponsored telemedicine network is being

established and some of the hospitals areseveral thousand kilometres away fromwell-populated areas in Brazil. Onlysatellite links can provide reliablecommunication capabilities. The importantfeature of AmerHis is being able to providea single-hop link, for example to a hospitalin Portugal for medical-specialistconsultation in the event of an emergencyoccurring at a hospital in the rainforest.

ConclusionThe onboard part of AmerHis has beenproven to function as expected in orbit,with a first videoconference between threesites in Europe taking place in earlyFebruary 2005. The technology offered byAmerHis provides the means to help tobridge the digital divide in developingregions of the World, with a specialemphasis on institutional applications suchas telemedicine.

In addition, the regenerative onboardpayload concept is also well-suited toserving communications scenarios forsecurity, civil protection and emergencyapplications, which typically havedemanding requirements in the areas ofmesh connectivity and quality of service.

r

AmerHis

Wittig 4/19/05 10:21 AM Page 27

Satellite Navigation,Wireless Networksand the Internet– Greater together than the sum of

the parts?

Satellite Navigation,Wireless Networksand the Internet– Greater together than the sum of

the parts?

Toran 4/19/05 10:19 AM Page 28


Satellite Navigation, Wireless Networks & Internet

O ver the last 20 years, major developments havetaken place in parallel in the key technology areas of

wireless communications and satellite navigation. Bothare gradually becoming indispensable tools in the professionaland consumer worlds. Nowadays, major synergies aredeveloping in terms of wireless mobile terminals with anavigation capability, or navigation terminals with wirelesscommunications capabilities. ESA is undertaking a series ofactivities to support the exploitation of such synergies for thebenefit of Europe’s citizens through the provision of new andupgraded services from space.

IntroductionFor the time being, satellite navigation is only known tothe public via consumer applications of the US GlobalPositioning System (GPS). The implementation of awide range of other potentially very useful GPS-basedapplications is still hampered by various institutionaland technical difficulties. The lack of guaranteedintegrity of today’s GPS data is a handicap for a widerange of critical applications, not only those involvingthe safeguarding of human lives. The limited accuracyand coverage of today’s GPS systems in towns andcities – due to what is known as the ‘urban canyon’effect – is currently tending to restrict applications tosomewhat basic guidance services.

Felix Toran, Javier Ventura-Traveset, Alberto Garcia,Jean-Luc Gerner, Simon Johns & Juan De MateoNavigation Department, ESA Directorate of European Unionand Industrial Programmes, Toulouse, France

Toran 4/19/05 10:19 AM Page 29



The European Geostationary NavigationOverlay Service (EGNOS) system, the firstpan-European Global Navigation SatelliteSystem (GNSS) infrastructure that willbegin operating in 2005, is a step forward inreducing such GPS limitations. EGNOSpermanently monitors the GPS satelliteconstellation and provides the users withreal-time integrity and correction data forthe GPS satellites, thereby enablingguaranteed high-accuracy positioning.EGNOS messages are broadcast overEurope via geostationary satellites,including ESA’s Artemis satellite, and this isan excellent broadcast medium for manyapplications (e.g. civil aviation ormaritime).

For other applications such asnavigation in urban areas, in 2001 ESAdeveloped the SISNeT technology, whichimproves urban penetration by providingthe EGNOS data to the user through theInternet, thereby making them accessibleto any wireless mobile terminal. Todaymany users are already using this by nowwell-proven technology, which has alreadycontributed to the emergence of a largenumber of innovative applications.SISNeT is just one of the many servicesthat combining satellite navigation systems

and wireless networks can offer. Moregenerally, ESA is also developing anEGNOS product-dissemination conceptbased on the EGNOS Data Access System(EDAS), which will be operational at theend of 2005, making full synergy betweenmobile and navigation services possible.

The EGNOS system is being developedby the ESA EGNOS Project Office locatedin Toulouse (F), with support from the ESADirectorate of Technical and QualityManagement at ESTEC in Noordwijk (NL),which has put a team of experts in place andhas set up a European NavigationLaboratory. There is also close coordinationwith the Galileo Joint Undertaking –responsible for the European Commission’snavigation research programme and theestablishment of the Galileo Concessionaire– and with the ESA NavigationApplications and User Services Office,which coordinates all ESA navigation-related application technologies.

Satellite Navigation and Communications – Technology and Services

Technology synergiesThe integration of the communication andsatellite navigation functions has majorbenefits at the user level. The satellitenavigation function can benefit from thesupport data provided through thecommunications channel for better accessto the wide-area differential and integrityGPS corrections provided by EGNOS.This avoids the problems of decreasing

The impact of EGNOS on GPS in terms of improved accuracy. ‘Selective availability’ is the ability of the GPS service provider tointentionally degrade system performance

EGNOS service area corresponding to the current baseline, with 34 monitoring stations (Courtesy of Alcatel Space)

Toran 4/19/05 10:19 AM Page 30


GNSS performance due to ‘shadowing’ ofthe EGNOS geostationary satellites, or insome indoor environments. Such links alsoenable the user terminal to access the latestsatellite ephemeris and SBAS messages onrequest, which dramatically decreases thereceiver’s Time To First Fix (TTFF), i.e. thetime needed to start providing position.Such synergies are particularly beneficialfor users at high latitudes, who may easilyexperience a low satellite visibility, andusers in suburban and urban ‘canyons’.

On the other side, the communicationsfunction benefits from the positioninformation, allowing power adjustmentbased on distance and network resourceoptimization, in addition to the primaryuser benefit of access to localisation-basedservices for which huge range ofapplications are being developed.

The ESA SISNeT Technology EGNOS will primarily broadcast wide-area/integrity GPS corrections throughgeostationary satellites. To providecomplementary transmission links, ESAhas launched specific activities to assessand demonstrate the feasibility ofbroadcasting the EGNOS signal by othermeans, such as standard FM radio signalsor GSM mobile phones.

As early as 2001, ESA provided accessto the EGNOS Test Bed messages via theInternet. A new product was thereby borncalled SISNeT (Signal in Space throughthe Internet), which proved to be full ofpotential. In February 2002, the prototypeSISNeT service was made accessibleworldwide via the Internet, offeringimmediate advantages to the GPS land-user community. Numerous usersequipped with a GPS receiver and wirelessInternet access have exploited the SISNeTservice and benefitted from the EGNOSTest Bed augmentation signals, even insituations where the geostationary EGNOSsatellites were not visible.

Extensive market studies haveconfirmed the value of the futureconvergence and merging of satellitenavigation and wireless networks intocompact mobile devices (e.g. mobilephones including a GNSS receiver) to offerGNSS-based Location Based Services

(LBS). Such studies serve to underline thegreat potential of SISNeT technology,which is already being applied in manyindustrial developments under ESAcontract.

The EGNOS Data Access System (EDAS)In addition to providing the InternetSISNeT service since 2002, ESA has alsoperformed a number of other feasibilitystudies on dissemination of the EGNOSmessages via other non-space means, suchas DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) orRDS (Radio Data Service). The highdegree of success achieved in those studieshas motivated the Agency to design aprofessional evolution of the SISNeTservice to match the needs of a broadspectrum of dissemination technologies.This evolution, called the EGNOS DataAccess System (EDAS), will constitute themain interface point for multimodalService Providers supplying the EGNOSproducts in real-time, within guaranteeddelay, security, and safety performanceboundaries. Application Service Providerswill then exploit these EGNOS products tooffer a variety of superior services to endusers.

EDAS will be developed as part of theGNSS Support Programme Step 1, with aview to having an EDAS systemoperational before the end of 2005, thusopening the way for its commercialexploitation by the EGNOS CommercialOperator.

The extensive suite of services thatcould be spawned from EDAS includes theprovision of:– SISNeT services– EGNOS pseudolites– EGNOS services via the Radio Data

System (RDS)– EGNOS services via Digital Audio

Broadcasting (DAB)– Wide Area Real-Time Kinematics

(WARTK) services, allowing decimetrelevel positioning accuracies atcontinental scales

– Accurate ionospheric monitoring– EGNOS performance information in

real-time– Archiving of EGNOS messages– EGNOS corrections in standard RTCM

SC104 format, ready for use by DGPSreceivers.

Demonstration Activities

A PDA-based SISNeT ReceiverTo verify the feasibility of the SISNeTconcept, ESA placed a contract with theFinnish Geodetic Institute to develop theWorld’s first SISNeT receiver. Based on aconventional Personal Digital Assistant(PDA) pocket-PC device, it includes both alow-cost GPS card and Internet access via astandard GSM/GPRS wireless modem.Special software combines the GPSmeasurements with EGNOS correctionsobtained from SISNeT via the Internet.Almost any commercial GPS software canbe enhanced with SISNeT positioning inthis way.


SISNeT handheld receiver based on the Siemens SX45 mobilephone/Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), developed by the FinnishGeodetic Institute (FGI) under ESA contract. This was the firstdevice to demonstrate the enormous potential of integratingEGNOS, Wireless Networks and the Internet in a single unit

Toran 4/19/05 10:19 AM Page 31



During field testing in Finland, the newreceiver delivered horizontal positioningaccuracies of 1-2 metres and verticalaccuracies of 2-3 metres. In a further step,the device has been integrated into aSiemens SX45 mobile phone.

SISNeT-based Navigation for the BlindThis demonstration activity assessed thebenefits of using the SISNeT concept tohelp blind people in a city environment.The project was based on an existingpersonal navigator for the blind, known asTORMES, developed by the Spanishcompany GMV Sistemas and the Spanishorganisation for the blind (ONCE). Itincludes a Braille keyboard, a voicesynthesizer, a cartography database andnavigation software. The positioning isbased on a conventional GPS receiver, andhence suffers the typical signal-shadowingproblems in urban areas.

The improvement provided by theintegration of EGNOS data via SISNeTwas tested in the outskirts and downtownareas of Valladolid in Spain. The resultswere excellent, with a significantimprovement in both accuracy and serviceavailability, which will allow blindpedestrians to be forewarned of obstaclesin the street. Being connected to theInternet could also give TORMESimportant added-value, allowing users to

not only receive information but also sendrelevant data back to the system, e.g.notification of a blocked street orpavement.

SISNeT-based Bus-Fleet ManagementThis activity was designed to demonstratethe improvements that EGNOS canprovide for an urban bus operator. A

handheld SISNeT receiver combining aGSM/GPRS modem and a GPS receiver,developed by the French companyNavocap under ESA contract, was testedon a bus operating in the French city ofToulouse. The route included bothresidential and downtown areas, allowingthe robustness of the unit to be tested fordifferent degrees of satellite visibility. Theresults were quite promising, indicatingthat SISNeT could be a very adequatecomplement to (or even a replacement for)the differential GPS systems currentlyemployed, which need a costly infra-structure.

ShPIDER: A Professional High-Performance SISNeT ReceiverAn integrated professional device calledShPIDER, which includes a GPS receiverand a GPRS modem, has been developedby GMV (Spain) under ESA contract. Itsnavigation algorithms allow significantlyimproved positioning accuracy and

TORMES: A personal navigator for the blind, enhanced with SISNeT capabilities, developed by GMV Sistemas (Spain) and ONCE (theSpanish Organisation for the Blind). This device has highlighted the immense benefits that the synergy between Satellite Navigation andCommunications can bring to visually impaired people

SISNeT receiver based on a PDA device, integrating a GPSreceiver and a wireless link to the Internet in a single box. It hasdemonstrated the benefits of the ESA EGNOS-SISNeT technologiesfor urban bus-fleet management systems. This receiver has beendeveloped by Navocap (France) under ESA contract

Toran 4/19/05 10:19 AM Page 32


availability compared with GPS-onlysolutions. The benefits are even morepronounced for low-visibility conditions,such as in cities. The ShPIDER receiverhas also been tested in the framework ofthe bus-fleet management trial inValladolid and the ESA EGNOS TRANproject (see below) in Rome, showingpromising results in both cases.

EGNOS Dissemination throughTerrestrial Networks - The EGNOS TRANProjectIn the framework of its Advanced Researchin Telecommunications Programme(ARTES), ESA launched a number ofactivities focussing on EGNOS signalbroadcasts for areas with weak space-signal reception. Several solutions weretested through the EGNOS TRAN project(EGNOS Terrestrial Regional Aug-mentations Networks), all of them relyingon the use of terrestrial networks asEGNOS augmentations.

Since most applications addressed weresafety-critical, the use of the terrestrial linkhas multiple benefits. For example, thecommunications link could be used toresend the EGNOS informationencapsulated in the appropriate format(RTCA original, GBAS, RTCM) in amanner transparent to the end user. In

other cases, the communication link wasused to help the end user to improve theirpositioning accuracy and integrity bymeans of an TRAN service centre that hasaccess to EGNOS either by direct line-of-sight or a SISNeT connection, and is ableto re-compute and send back the end-usernavigation solution.

Several demonstrations have shown theEGNOS performance via TRAN to be veryclose to that when using geostationary-satellite data, despite the extra delayintroduced by the communication link. TheProject has confirmed EGNOS as a verycost-efficient alternative to a number ofexisting local-area GPS augmentationsystems.

EGNOS Dissemination over RDSESA has also studied the feasibility ofEGNOS dissemination using FM RadioData System (RDS) signals, through acontract with TDF (France). A laboratorychain was set up in which EGNOSmessages from the ESA SISNeT servicewere broadcast via RDS signals. A keychallenge was the need to reduce theamount of information to be broadcast inorder to fit the RDS bandwidth available.This was solved by developing selectivefiltering algorithms able to extract only theinformation relevant to the user, depending


ShPIDER, a professional high-performance SISNeT-powered EGNOS receiver, developed by GMV (Spain). It integrates a GPRS wirelesslink to the Internet and a GPS receiver and has been tested in the context of both bus-fleet management in Spain and the EGNOS TRANProject in Italy

Summary of applications developed in the context of the EGNOSTRAN Project

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on his/her position. The results showedtypical horizontal accuracies of 1-3 metres,demonstrating both the feasibility andpotential of RDS EGNOS broadcasting.

EGNOS Dissemination over DABThe results with RDS encouraged ESA tothink about other possible means ofEGNOS transmission. The focus was onDigital Audio Broadcasting (DAB), atechnology that allows the listener to receiveCD-quality radio programmes withoutsignal distortion or interference. Moreover,DAB is able to carry not only audio signals,but also text, pictures, data and even videosto the receiving set, and is beingimplemented and exploited worldwide.

The concept was tested in Germany,through an activity performed by Bosch-Blaupunkt (Germany) under ESA contract.The EGNOS message was obtained via theSISNeT service and transmitted over DAB.A DAB car radio system received thesignals and extracted the EGNOS data,which was decoded and applied to a GPSreceiver through an integrated hardware-

software platform. A tour throughperipheral, residential and downtown areasrevealed a significant improvement interms of positioning accuracy with respectto GPS-only applications.

Integrated Receiver TechnologiesESA is also supporting several projects inthe receiver-technology domain. One of thefirst is to develop and demonstrate a small,low-cost EGNOS/Inmarsat terminal that is

capable of computing safe positions andcommunicating them to the web for a varietyof safety, navigation and other applicationsin the maritime domain. The terminal isbeing developed by TransCore-GlobalWave(Canada) based on a commercially availableproduct. It receives GPS/EGNOS navigationsignals and computes position which,together with other sensor and messageinformation, is communicated back to thebase station using the Inmarsat-3 satellites,and to the customer via the Internet. Theterminal’s position is monitored through theGlobalWave application server, located atthe end-user’s premises. The integratedterminal thereby provides a two-waycommunications function between themobile terminal and the web, with theservice area determined by Inmarsat-3satellite coverage.

Another project is the development and demonstration of an IntegratedNavigation/Mobile Communication UserTerminal based on the TETRAPOLsystem. TETRAPOL is a fully secure,digital mobile communications network(GPRS-like), designed to meet thegrowing needs and expectations of highly-demanding Professional Mobile Radio(PMR) users, such as public safetyservices, transport, or industry. Theterminal supplies the actual EGNOS-basedposition information via the TETRAPOLcommunication network to an Automatic

The GlobalWave system architecture

EGNOS service-coverage expansion to the MEDA region, thanks tothe addition of four monitoring stations to the EGNOS baseline.This enhancement is planned for 2006 (Courtesy of AlcatelSpace)

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EGNOS V2.1 (in 2006) EGNOS V2.2 (in 2007/8) EGNOS V2.3 (in 2008/9)

Provision of operational Provision of EGNOS time Broadcasting of EGNOSnon-SoL services service messages in L5(MT0/MT2)

MT28 provision Upgrading RIMS L1/E5Provision of EGNOS to be able to also processproducts through non- Expansion of EGNOS Galileo IPPs to improveGEO means (INSPIRE services in Africa IONO measurements (TBC)and EDAS)

Expansion of EGNOSExpansion of EGNOS services to EU accessingservices in MEDA countriesregion (North Africaand Middle East, Avail. improvement byMediterranean countries) modern RIMS RX (L2C)

SAR return link & I/FCOSPAS/SARSAT (TBC)

STEP 1 STEP 2


Vehicle Localization (AVL) server. Theend-user is able to track and guide severalterminals on an AVL display andcommunicate with them via the voice anddata channels of the TETRAPOL system.The navigation module is able to acquireassisted GPS and assisted EGNOSinformation via the communication systemwhenever the clear view of the satellites isobstructed. The main applications are thetracing and tracking of mobile targets, andsecurity and emergency locationdetermination. A demonstration phase hasverified the system’s performance.

The communication part of the projectis under the responsibility of EADSTelecom, whereas the navigation part isbeing implemented by IMST, Fraunhoferand IFEN. TeleConsult is responsible forthe demonstration phase.

Future Developments and EvolutionAt the time of writing (October 2004), thedeployment of the EGNOS infrastructureis quasi-complete, with all four MasterControl Centres (MCC) and all sixNavigation Land Earth Stations (NLES)already in place. 31 of the 34 RIMSRanging and Integrity MonitoringStations) are now installed, and all threeEGNOS geostationary satellites are

already successfully transmitting EGNOStest signals. The test transmissions startedin December 2003, and the qualificationtests are now approaching completion withthe EGNOS Operational ReadinessReview, which will open the way for initialsystem operations, scheduled for early2005.

In parallel with the start of operations,EGNOS already plans to respondpositively to today’s dynamic GNSSenvironment. Since 1998, when theoriginal EGNOS mission requirementswere set, the launch of the GalileoProgramme and the planned modernisationof the GPS and WAAS systems havebrought further opportunities for EGNOS.In this global strategic race to promote andbenefit from future GNSS applications, theCouncil of the European Union confirmedin June 2003 that, as an integral part of theEuropean Satellite Navigation policy,EGNOS services should be extendedwithin a long-term perspective to otherparts of the World. In response to thatmandate, a GNSS Support Programmewas defined by ESA and the EuropeanCommission – Step 1 covering the 2005-2006 timeframe and Step 2 the 2006-2008timeframe – to further maximise thepotential benefits of GNSS for Europe’s

citizens, and in particular to define andimplement the most appropriateevolutions of the EGNOS system to bestprepare for the Galileo services to beavailable from 2009 onwards.

ConclusionsSince 2000 and the implementation of theEGNOS Test Bed, ESA has been playing aleading role in demonstrations of thepotential benefits that European citizenscan expect from these technologies.Special attention will continue to bedevoted to the future EGNOS Data AccessSystem (EDAS), which will already beoperational at the end of 2005, facilitatingfull synergy between mobile andnavigation services. These advancedGNSS services are likely to becomeessential assets on a day-to-day basis formany Europeans from 2005 onwards, firstwith EGNOS and later on a worldwidebasis with the Galileo system. r


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FrequencyManagement forESA’s Missions

marelli 4/19/05 10:06 AM Page 36


Frequencies for ESA’s missions

P eople not familiar with the subject sometimes see the frequency management for a satellite as an activity

whereby the ‘good’ frequency is selected by applyingsome mysterious formula. In reality, as this article will try toexplain, there is much more to it. Frequency management is arather broad discipline in which international regulations,technical discussions and negotiations play a key role. Theradio-frequency spectrum is becoming an increasingly scarceresource and more and more users of all kinds are competingwith each other for their share. In a nutshell, frequencymanagement involves minimising the implications of thisproblem for the satellite users.

International Regulations The frequency bands available for use by the differentradio-frequency services, the technical/operationalconditions under which it is possible to operate, and therelevant protection criteria are specified in the RadioRegulations of the International TelecommunicationUnion (ITU), a UN international treaty signed by 190nations. These regulations are particularly importantfor satellite services, because their radio-frequencyemissions go well beyond national boundaries.

The Radio Regulations can be changed only by aWord Radiocommunication Conference (WRC), aformal meeting of the Delegates from all nations

Edoardo MarelliDirectorate of European Union and Industrial Programmes,ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands

Enrico VassalloDirectorate of Operations and Infrastructure, ESOC,Darmstadt, Germany




participating to the ITU, which typicallytakes place in Geneva (CH) every threeyears and lasts a whole month. Whiledecisions are taken at the WRC, during theintervening three years each item on theWRC agenda is assigned to the appropriateStudy Group (SG) to carry out thepreparatory technical work. This workenables the ITU delegates to take aninformed decision on the proposedchanges. The structure of the study group(see accompanying panels) follows theITU definition of radio services, with thespace research service, terrestrial service,mobile-satellite service, etc. As aconsequence, ESA is mainly active in SG7,where all space-science services belong, inSG8 (radio navigation satellite service andmobile satellite service) and in SG3(propagation).

The ITU works to achieve a consensuson all WRC agenda items through intensenegotiations and diplomacy. It is normalpractice for nations to form commonproposals to the Conference via regionalagreements prior to the WRC. This is whyESA also participates in the meetings ofthe European Communication Commis-sion (ECC/CEPT), with the goal ofachieving common European proposals forthe WRC.

Satellite Network FilingIn order to properly register an ESAsatellite and its ground stations with theITU, a number of steps have to be followed(in accordance with administrative noteESA/ADMIN/IPOL-PROC(2004)2). Atthe beginning of a satellite mission’s design, it is necessary to prepare a so-

called ‘Request forFrequency Assignment’,containing preliminarydata on the satellite’st e l e c o m m u n i c a t i o nsystems, the preferredfrequency bands, thestation network to beused, and the orbitalcharacteristics of themission.

This request isthoroughly checked toassess compliance withthe ITU radio regulationsand international radiofrequency and modu-lation standards of theConsultative Committeefor Space Data Systems(CCSDS) and of theEuropean Cooperationfor Space Standardization(ECSS). Compliance isalso checked with theinteragency agreementsof the Space FrequencyCoordination Group(SFCG) (see colouredpanel). If needed,changes are requested tothe project. The amendeddocument then forms thebasis for conducting

The ITU sectors and their rolesThe ITU-R study groups

The Space Frequency Coordination Group(SFCG)

The SFCG was created 24 years ago asan ESA and NASA initiative. It is aninformal group composed of frequencymanagers from all of the main civil spaceagencies in the World. Its mainobjectives are to:• adopt agreements that allow spaceagencies to make best use of theallocated bands and to avoid interferencebetween members’ space systems• agree common policies and identifylong-term targets related to potentialchanges to the international regulations.

To achieve these objectives, the SFCGmembers develop and adopt commonresolutions and recommendations to beapplied within their own organisations.These cover a variety of subjects,including for example: spectrum masks,deep-space channel plans, inter-agencyfrequency co-ordination procedures,interference criteria, standard trans-ponder turn-around frequency ratios, useof specific bands, common objectiveswith respect to the next WRC, etc.

The current SFCG member agencies are:ASI (Italy), BNSC (UK), CAST (China),CMA (China), CNES (France), CONAE(Argentina), CSA (Canada), CSIRO(Australia), DLR (Germany), ESA,EUMETSAT, INPE (Brazil), INSA(Spain), ISRO (India), JAXA (Japan),KARI (Korea), NASA (USA), NIVR(Netherlands), NOAA (USA), NSA(Malaysia), NSAU (Ukraine), NSPO(Taiwan), SSC (Sweden), RFSA(Russia). WMO, IUCAF, ITWG, CCSDSand ITU-R are observers.

The Head of the ESA FrequencyManagement Office has the task ofpermanent SFCG Executive Secretary.

Further information on the SFCG can befound at:

http://www.sfcgonline.org/.



inter-agency coordination and anevaluation of potential radio-frequencyinterference between the ESA mission andmissions by other space agencies (NASA,JAXA, etc). These bilateral negotiationsare supported by an ESA-developedsoftware tool, which assesses the potential

mutual radio-frequency interference (RFI)by taking into account orbital character-istics, Doppler shifts, modulation formatsand operating modes.

Examples of the capabilities of such atool can be seen in the accompanyingfigure, which depicts the RFI scenario forthe case of the Cluster satellite interferingwith JAXA’s ETS-VIII spacecraft.

The final goal of such pre-ITUcoordination is to find a reasonablefrequency assignment that avoids the needfor operational coordination in the future.

Having completed this task, the nextstep is the preparation of the ITU advance

publication (API) filing and notification(Article 11) filing. This is carried out byusing an ITU software suite. Such a filingis first circulated among ESA’s MemberStates for association and then submittedto the ITU via ESA’s notifying nationaladministration (France).

In compliance with ITU regulations,the submission of API and Article 11files is typically done three years prior tothe nominal satellite launch date. Thisensures that stable satellite and stationperformance figures are already availableand that a normal launch delay would notinvalidate the ITU filing. The maximumtime allowed by ITU regulations betweenthe API submission and the launch is 7 years.

Comments on the filing by anyNational Administration with the ITUwill have to be answered to achieve thesatellite notification. Having conducted

the informal coordination with other spaceagencies beforehand, no major problemsare usually encountered at ITU level. Theprocedure at ITU level is much morecomplex in the case of geostationarysatellites, but luckily very few ESAsatellites fall into this category.

In order to operate the ESA groundstations (or a third-party station supportingan ESA mission), it is mandatory to have atransmit-and-receive licence issued by theAdministration on whose territory thestation is located. To ease this procedure,ESA has concluded agreements on radio-frequency use and protection requirementswith all of the nations on whose territoryan ESA station is located. Suchagreements are based on simulations ofRFI between the ESA station(s) anddomestic terrestrial stations in its area ofinfluence. These simulations, aimed atdemonstrating that the protection criteria


The radio-frequency interference scenario for ESA’s Cluster and JAXA’s ETS-VII satellites




for both terrestrial and space services aremet, utilise ITU software that takes dueaccount of line-of-sight propagation,diffraction, anomalous propagation andrain scatter.

Having concluded such agreementsdoes not absolve ESA from requestingindividual licences for each satellite thathas to be supported by the station. ForEuropean stations where cross-boundarycoordination may be an issue, andtherefore ITU notification of the station isalso needed, the request for station licenceshas to be accompanied by the stationcoordination contours and the associateddata file computed with the prescribed ITUsoftware. The accompanying figure is anexample of the coordination area for theAgency’s Redu station in Belgium, in caseit would need to support the SMART-1mission in the 8.4 GHz band. It shows thatinternational coordination with the

Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany,France, Switzerland and the UnitedKingdom would be required.

The host country Administration startscoordination on behalf of ESA, whichhowever is required to answer questionsfrom the interested Administrations andconduct ad-hoc RFI assessments with thetools described previously. As soon as thecoordination is positively concluded (notall such coordinations to date have beensuccessful), an ITU form similar to thesatellite notification has to be prepared andsubmitted to the ITU. If the stationcoordination area is entirely within oneAdministration’s territory, a domesticlicence is sufficient. This lengthy processis concluded as soon as all stations licences(or notifications) are available.

It goes without saying that the termsand conditions of the satellite and stationnotifications cannot be violated during themission operations.

Interference Events and OperationalCoordinationSometimes, the early coordination effortwith other agencies like NASA and JAXAreveals a frequency-sharing problembetween two missions, but programmaticconsiderations do not allow the selectionof a different frequency. At other times, anon-coordinated satellite interfering withan ESA flying mission is suddenlydetected. In these cases, the solution tominimise data loss is operationalcoordination between these two satellites.This coordination starts by using the

A typical coordination contour, in this case for SMART-1 mission support from ESA’s Redu station in Belgium

Number of satellites filed with the ITU for operation in the 8025-8400 MHz band



satellite RFI prediction tool to assess thelevel and percentage of interference at bothreception ends and results in a set ofconstraints on both missions to try andreduce the data loss to a minimum whilstnot creating a huge operational burden oneither mission. Such sets of constraints(typically a no-transmission cone angle)become part of an inter-agency agreementsigned by both parties and are enforced byadding them to the mission rules.

To date, fewer than 20 operationalcoordination procedures have beenestablished, mainly in the 2 GHz bandswhere there are 1600 ITU notifications.The only coordination procedureestablished in the 8 GHz bands concernsthe Mars-Express and Mars GlobalSurveyor missions.

Data loss has so far only beenexperienced with two ESA missions:Integral being interfered with by a militarysatellite at Goldstone, and SOHO beinginterfered with by Meteosat SecondGeneration. While the first incident wasdue to a change in domestic priorities inthe USA, the second is a seasonal problemdue to the selection of frequencies that didnot take into account an extended lifetimefor the SOHO project; it is being resolvedby three-party operational coordination,involving ESA, NASA and Eumetsat.

Given the fact that most ESA missionsoperate in the 2 GHz bands, which arealready heavily congested, the very smallloss of data experienced so far wouldindicate that the Agency’s internalprocedures for frequency management aresound. Nevertheless, as they say in thebooklets promoting investment funds, pastperformance does not constitute aguarantee for the future!

Potential Problems AheadThe growing difficulties in frequencymanagement fall into two categories:competition for spectrum within the space-science services, and competition forspectrum from other services.

Competition for spectrum within thespace-science servicesAs already mentioned above, the spectrumdemand in the bands typically used by

ESA satellites for tracking, telemetry andcommand (TTC) and for payload datatransmission is increasing rapidly. Newplayers are joining, mainly from Asiancountries and commercial entities, whilesimultaneously new satellite projects needto transmit ever-increasing volumes ofdata.

To provide a feeling for the situation,we can take the results of a study made byESA for the SFCG on the situation with the ITU filings in the 8 GHz band for EarthExploration satellite downlinks. The threeaccompanying graphs show the historicalevolution in the use of this band, and the

expected trend for the coming years. Theapparent reduction in the problem after2006 is an artefact due to the fact thatmany satellites to be flown after 2006 havenot yet been filed with the ITU, and themore meaningful curves are the dottedones giving the trends. Even discountingthe fact that some of the planned satelliteswill not be flown or will fail, the idea thatwe already have a mean frequency reusefactor larger than 10 and that this maydouble within a few years is rather scary!

There is obviously no room forchoosing ‘free’ frequencies. The prob-ability of having interference occur on the


Total bandwidth used by all satellites, and the mean bandwidth per satellite, for the 8025-8400 MHz spectrum range

Estimated frequency re-use for the 8025-8400 MHz band




downlinks will increase exponentially,especially around the high-latitudestations. Suitable orbit selection, downlinkstrategies, ground-station selection,spectrum-efficient coding and modulation,and error-correction coding may alleviatethe problem. They may not, however, besufficient to make it disappear, even if wefind a way to have everybody agreeing tosome strict self-imposed regulations inthese areas. The space-science communitymay even end up one day having to migratethe more bandwidth-hungry missions tohigher frequency bands, with theassociated cost of designing anddeveloping new onboard equipment andground infrastructures.

This is just one example. The S-band at2 GHz is, in terms of users, even worse.

In other words, space agencies have toprepare themselves for a future when moreand more missions will have to coordinatetheir operations with others and accept theassociated costs in terms of extra

manpower and intermittent data losses ordelays. Not a comforting thought!

Competition for spectrum from otherservicesIn addition to the ‘internal problem’outlined above, space-science serviceshave to face another, even more severechallenge. Other spectrum users,particularly those from the commercialterrestrial telecommunication sector, areputting an increasing amount of pressureon the bands used by our satellites. Thismay take the form of proposing thatregulations less favourable to our servicesbe introduced in the bands that we sharewith them, or proposing that newcommercial systems be allowed to operatein these bands. ESA and the other spaceagencies have fought in all internationalforums against these attempts, so far withsuccess. The SFCG has been veryinstrumental in winning these battles, butthe pressure is on.

Below are just a couple of examples ofproblems faced in recent the past and theassociated consequences:

Example 1: 3rd generation mobile telephonesMost of the 2 GHz range used by oursatellites for TTC was targeted in the late1990’s for allocation to the terrestrialmobile service systems implementing thenew 3rd-generation mobile telephones(UMTS) that are now appearing on themarket. Luckily they were kept out of thelarger portions of the TTC bands, whichcan still be used for space science after in-depth negotiations lasting for twoconferences (WRC-95 and WRC-97). Theonly band assigned to UMTS within thespace-science bands is 2110-2120 MHz,which overlaps with the space researchdeep-space uplink band and was assignedto the predecessor of UMTS in 1992.

In 1992, the first-generation mobile-phone system had only a few thousandsubscribers in the World and was not

ESA’s new ground station at New Norcia, photographed from the 35-metre antenna



considered a threat to space science. In thisband, satellite ground stations transmitsignals that can have powers of up to a 400 kW in order to reach the most distantsatellites. Consequently, UMTS telephoneswithin a few hundreds kilometres of theantenna could be interfered with. If onethinks of the huge amount of money that thetelecommunications companies have spentat auctions to ‘buy’ these UMTSfrequencies, it is clear that they are nothappy at the idea of suffering interferenceover large geographical areas. From this hascome the pressure on our stations to relocateto the most remote locations. It started inAustralia, where ESA had to build a newstation in the outback at New Norcia,because the existing one at Gnangara wasdeemed to be too close to the city of Perth.Later, our Villafranca station in Spain cameunder similar pressure and the decision wastaken to build the new deep-space antennaat the more remote location of Cebreros.Every time ESA reaches the phase ofrenewing a ground-station agreement withthe relevant national authority, this problemis raised and has to be renegotiated.

Example 2. Wi-Fi systems The next-generation Wi-Fi systems forterrestrial broadband wireless localnetworks will operate in a bandoverlapping with the one used by the C-band SAR imager on ESA’s Envisatsatellite. In Europe ESA was instrumentalin defining regulations limiting the use to

indoor Wi-Fi systems only, as thebuilding’s shielding effect will avoid anyinterference with SAR measurements.National regulations in North America,however, do not include this limitation, andso there is the possibility that in a fewyears time Envisat SAR images over itsurban areas may experience somedegradation.

Example 3. Car collision-avoidance radarsFrom next year, the car industry will offerthe possibility of mounting short-rangecollision-avoidance radars on new cars.Unfortunately, these radars will initiallyoperate around 24 GHz for a number ofyears, before moving to their nominalhigher frequency at 79 GHz, for which thetechnology is still under development.Studies made by ESA and othermeteorological agencies havedemonstrated that a certain density of carsequipped with these devices wouldinterfere with atmospheric water-vapourmeasurements made by microwavesounders like the one on the MetOpsatellites. This resulted in the decision tolimit the use of the 24 GHz band by thesecar radars to just the first few years, duringwhich it is assumed the market penetrationof these new devices will still be limited.This compromise was reached after morethan two years of difficult discussions withrepresentatives of the car industry.

The mobile-phone industry, the Wi-Fiindustry, and the car industry – clearly the

economic and political weight of some ofour competitors for spectrum is alreadyimpressive, and there are more of themlining up! So far, ESA has managed tobalance that through some well-coordinated international actions, accuratetechnical studies to support the space-science position, participation in all thekey meetings at which decisions are taken,a good working relationship with allnational and international authorities, anda responsible and reasoned approach. Willthat be sufficient also for the future?

Conclusions This article has hopefully provided aninteresting overview of the workassociated with frequency management forthe ESA missions. It has identified thevarious steps in the process, the tools usedand the final result. It has also describedthe growing complexity in coordinatingthe use of the bands with space missionsfrom other agencies, as well as the risksstemming from the presence of new radio-frequency systems competing for the useof the scarce spectrum resource available.These challenges can be met only byreinforcing international coordination andby exploiting structures like the SFCG todefine common long-term strategiesamong all the space agencies.Nevertheless, it is not unlikely that theincreasing competition for spectrum mayresult in some limitations on the designand operation of future ESA missions!

e



Columbus:Ready for theInternational SpaceStation

Patti 4/19/05 10:10 AM Page 46


Columbus

One of the key contributions to thedevelopment and operation of the

International Space Station (ISS) is ESA’sColumbus Laboratory Module. It will betransported to the ISS, together with itspayload complement, on Space ShuttleAssembly Flight 1E in 2006. Columbus’sreadiness for launch requires the availabilitynot only of the Module itself, but also threeother major elements being provided by ESA,namely: the Ground Segment, consisting of theColumbus Control Centre and the User Supportand Operations Centres (USOCs), theOperations products, and the Crew Training.

Status of the Four ESA ElementsThe ESA-provided elements required forFlight 1E readiness fall into fourcategories:

The Flight SegmentThe flight segment consists of theColumbus Laboratory Module and itsassociated Payload Complement. TheLaboratory Module has been developed forESA under the Prime Contractorship ofEADS-ST in Bremen, Germany, with amajor contribution from Alenia Spazio ofTurin, Italy. The Module has alreadysuccessfully completed its QualificationReviews 1 and 2, and is currentlyundergoing testing to support the Review 2close-out activities, which are planned tobe completed in March 2005.

Bernado Patti, Robert Chesson, Martin Zell &Alan ThirkettleColumbus Project, Directorate of HumanSpaceflight, Microgravity and Exploration,ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands

Patti 4/19/05 10:10 AM Page 47


The Columbus Payload Complement iscomposed of four pressurised payloadracks (so-called ‘ISPRs’), namely: theBiolab, the European Physiology Module(EPM), the Fluid-Science Laboratory(FLS), the European Drawer Rack (EDR),and two unpressurised external payloads,EuTEF and SOLAR. While the fourpressurised payload racks will already beintegrated into the Columbus LaboratoryModule prior to launch, the unpressurisedexternal payloads will be accommodated

on a dedicated cargo carrier provided byNASA.

The Ground SegmentThe Ground Segment is made up of twodistinct elements, the Columbus ControlCentre and the User Support andOperation Centres (USOCs).

The Columbus Control Centre,developed under the Prime Contractorshipof DLR in Oberpfaffenhofen (D), wasinaugurated in October 2004 and is already

supporting mission preparation andmission simulations from its controlrooms.

The European USOCs will carry out themajority of tasks related to the preparationfor flight and in-flight operation of theColumbus payloads. Based at existingnational centres specifically equipped byESA for ISS activities, these USOCs willact as the link between the user communityand ESA’s ISS utilisation organisation.They will interact with the scientists attheir User Home Bases by disseminatingexperiment data to them, and receiving andprocessing requests for experimentscheduling.

There are three basic levels ofresponsibility within the USOCs:– Facility Responsible Centres (FRC) are

delegated overall responsibility for arack-level payload.

– Facility Support Centres (FSC) aredelegated responsibility for a particularsub-rack payload, such as a facilityinsert, experiment container, drawerpayload, or bioreactor.

– Experiment Support Centres (ESC) aredelegated responsibility for singleexperiments.

The USOCs’ current major activitiesinvolve the completion of infrastructurebuild-up and operations preparations. Theformer is almost complete, with theremaining part being mainly related to theinstallation of the common equipmentsupplied by ESA. Some of the USOCshave already started preparations forexperiments in the framework of the earlyISS activities before Flight 1E, in order togain early experience of ISS operations.

The Operations Preparations Onboard and ground Operations Productssuch as procedures and displays are closeto finalisation. The verification ofprocedures began in September 2004, and

Human Spaceflight, Microgravity and Exploration

The Columbus Laboratory Module

Columbus in the Space Shuttle’s cargo bay (artist’s impression)

Patti 4/19/05 10:10 AM Page 48


some of them have been used for systemvalidation. The flight operations teamsfrom ESA, DLR and NASA have alreadyconducted simulations of the assemblyprocedures for the Flight 1E mission.

The Crew TrainingThe development of the training forastronauts working with the Columbussystems was completed in 2004. Thepayload training itself will be concluded in

spring 2005. A Columbus trainingsimulator running the Data ManagementSystem (DMS) flight software and aColumbus Mock-up for hands-on trainingactivities are ready for use. Stand-alonetraining facilities for the EPM, EDR,Biolab and FSL are ready to supportgeneric payload training.

During the past three years an industrialinstructor team has been trained andcertified for crew training, and about 350hours of astronaut training have beendeveloped. The instructor team becamefully operational in 2004 and has alreadyconducted two courses for advancedastronaut training for six astronauts, andfive training courses for a total of sixtyESA and NASA flight controllers andoperations personnel.

The Columbus Simulator and theColumbus Mock-up located at theEuropean Astronaut Centre (EAC) inCologne-Porz (D) constitute the two mainfacilities for the training of astronauts onColumbus systems.

Columbus

The Space Shuttle’s Return to Flight The tragic loss of ‘Columbia’ in February 2003 caused a major perturbation in theplanned Shuttle mission schedule. The causes of the accident have been identifiedby the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB), whose report listed 15recommendations that had to be implemented before the Space Shuttle’s return toflight.

NASA then established an Implementation Plan that addressed each of theserecommendations in turn, as well as an additional 24 recommendations not related to the return to flight, coming either from the CAIB or from internalconsiderations. At the time of writing (December 2004) five of the 15 recom-mendations are formally closed out. A further five are in the final paperworkverification stage, and the final five are still being in work, albeit at an advancedstage.

The first return-to-flight Shuttle mission is currently planned for mid-May to mid-June 2005, subject to successful completion of the modifications to the thermal-protection insulation on the Large External Tank, debris from which caused thecritical damage to the leading edge of Columbia’s wing.

The Columbus end-to-end scenario

Patti 4/19/05 10:10 AM Page 49


The Integration for Flight 1EThe declaration of Flight 1E readinessrequires the integration of, and theverification of the interfaces between, thevarious ESA-provided elements describedabove. The originally planned October2004 launch date, prior to the ‘Columbia’tragedy, would have ensured a smoothtransition from the Columbus developmentstage to the operations phase. The Shuttle’s

grounding and the resulting two-year delayfor Flight 1E have required a totalreworking of the planning. Instead ofslowing down the developmentprogramme, it was decided to complete thebaselined set of activities according to theoriginal planning, which involved inparticular the completion of the Flight andGround Segment Development togetherwith the testing of their interfaces (see

accompanying figure). This has minimisedthe impact on the development contractsand allowed the early identification ofpotential interface issues well before thenew Flight 1E launch date. This in turnwill reduce the remaining technical risks inthe programme.

The payload integration and testing hastherefore been followed by the SystemValidation Tests 1 and 2, to verify theinterfaces between the space and groundsegments.

Payload IntegrationPayload integration took place betweenApril and June 2004. During this period,the interface compatibility betweenColumbus and its pressurised payloads hasbeen verified on the Columbus flightmodel. This test campaign involved theexecution of individual tests for eachPayload Facility, followed by an IntegratedSystem Test.

System Validation TestingFollowing payload integration, theinterfaces between the flight and groundsegments have been tested by so-calledSystem Validation Tests (SVT): SVT 1used the Columbus Electrical Test Model(ETM) together with the ColumbusGround Segment, and SVT 2 theColumbus Proto-flight Model (PFM)outfitted with the pressurised payloads, incombination with the Columbus ControlCentre and the USOCs.

SVT 2 was the first time that all of themajor programme elements had beentested together. The functionalconfiguration for the test was thereforeextremely complex and its execution wasvery challenging due to the manyinterfaces involved. Its successfulcompletion therefore represented a majormilestone in the progress of the overallprogramme.

The Shipment of Columbus to KSCFollowing the completion of the SystemValidation Tests, the items making up theEuropean payload complement have beenshipped back to their respective industrialcontractors for refurbishment andenhancement. The Columbus Module itself

Human Spaceflight, Microgravity and Exploration

The Columbus Mock-up (left) and the Columbus Simulator (right) at the European Astronaut Centre (EAC)

The interior of the Columbus flight model

Patti 4/19/05 10:10 AM Page 50


will also undergo some refurbishment. Inorder to reduce the programme risks stillfurther, some extra testing is beingplanned, which will include end-to-endtesting of the external payload elementsand extended software endurance testing.

Thirteen months prior to launch, theColumbus Module and its Payload willundergo a second round of integration and testing, in preparation for theirshipment to Kennedy Space Centre (KSC). The integration phase, togetherwith the packing activities, will be timed

to allow the Columbus Laboratory toundergo a seven-month launch campaignat KSC.

ConclusionWith the completion of the PayloadIntegration and Test and end-to-end TestCampaigns (SVT1/SVT2), Columbus hassuccessfully passed its QualificationsReviews (QR1/QR2), thereby officiallycompleting the development phase.Activities in 2005 will focus on completionof the remaining integration work, on some

extra testing aimed at further reducing themission risks, and on the final launchpreparations. Current planning by ESA andEADS-ST foresees the packing andshipment activities to start in Europe in theDecember 2005/January 2006 time frame,in order to allow the shipment to Florida ofthe Columbus Module, with the PayloadRacks already installed, in the first quarterof 2006 in good time for the final launchpreparations. r

Columbus

The Flight 1E Columbus integration and launch-preparationprogramme

Patti 4/19/05 10:10 AM Page 51


Operations and Infrastructure

All modern businesses throughout the World depend on software and for many ofthem it is mission-critical. Software therefore accounts for a significant proportionof global GDP. It follows that software engineering, which enables efficient

development of quality software, is of great importance and not just a niche specialisation.Of course, in ESA and in the space business generally, we are critically dependent onsoftware and associated Information Technology (IT) systems, which pervade all our spacesystems, both onboard the spacecraft and on the ground.

Why Software Engineering is ImportantSurveys have shown that the average corporation pays 3-7% of its annualrevenues for hardware and software for corporate data processing, and another 2-5% for maintenance: that is 5-10% of the economy in the developed World!Information technology is critical for many businesses in that they rely on theefficiency and integrity of their IT systems for their day-to-day operations. Thisis especially the case for ESA and the European space industry, where software isall-pervasive in onboard avionics and payloads, in ground segments and also inthe associated commercial business processes.

An epigram by the philosopher George Santayana carved over the entrance tothe US Archive in Washington DC reads: “Those who cannot remember the pastare doomed to repeat it.” A variation of this could be: “Those who cannotremember the past, may not be able to repeat their successes”. So you need toremember the past in order to avoid mistakes and to repeat successes.

The need to take account of ‘lessons learnt’ is well-recognised in ESA andmeasures to ensure the feedback of experience into improved working practicesare being actively pursued. In the case of software-engineering, the Agency hasbeen doing this for over 25 years. In fact, software engineering is basically aboutrecording experience in developing and maintaining software and documenting itin the form of best practices.

Software Engineering:Are we getting betterat it?Michael JonesMission Data Systems Division, ESA Directorate of Operationsand Infrastructure, ESOC, Darmstadt, Germany

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Software Engineering

Software Engineering Advances at ESA

Advance 1: The importance of require-mentsSoftware engineering in ESA started in themid-1970s. The initial impetus came fromthe experience of Dr. Carlo Mazza duringthe Meteosat Ground Computer System(MGCS) project, which was responsiblefor the data-processing system for the firstof ESA’s meteorological spacecraft. TheMGCS covered mission control, payloaddata processing, dissemination ofmeteorological products generated fromthe payload data, interactive productquality control and data archiving. Thesystem aimed at a high degree ofautomation, particularly for repetitive butcomplex tasks such as the extraction ofwind directions from sequences of satelliteimages, which was unusual at the time.

It became apparent about a year beforeMeteosat’s launch that the MGCS projectwas in difficulties. The problem as CarloMazza saw it was that the requirementsthat the system was supposed to meet werenot documented. Carlo therefore took thedecision to stop work on development (i.e. design and coding) and document therequirements – a decision that requiredboth vision and courage – so thatmanagement could then make informeddecisions on development priorities.

The first Meteosat spacecraft, being readied for its launch fromEastern Test Range in Florida on 22 November 1997

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The lesson learned was never to undertakesuch a project without first drawing up well-defined requirements, and it subsequentlyresulted in the formation within ESA of theBoard for Software Standardisation andControl (BSSC), with Carlo Mazza as itsfirst Chairman. Its terms of referenceincluded the provision of a softwareengineering standard, which was eventuallypublished as ESA Procedures, Standardsand Specifications document PSS-05-0. Itclearly highlighted the distinction betweenuser requirements and software require-ments, which was far from being wellrecognised at that time. In fact, a keymessage from the authors of that standardwas the need to analyse and negotiate userrequirements to produce an unambiguousbaseline for the software developers, whichcan be implemented with the technologyavailable and within the budget provided.

Advance 2: Customer/supplier equilibriumand firm-fixed-price contracts In the 1980s and early 1990s, mostsoftware development at ESOC was doneunder Fixed Unit Price (FUP) conditions.That meant that the Centre bought man-hours of effort from a contractor and tookfull responsibility (i.e. fully ‘owned therisk’) for the software requirements andtheir implementation. As the software

contractor team took no suchresponsibility, they were under noobligation to scrutinise requirementscritically. In fact, the situation was quitethe reverse – the more requirements thatwere accepted, the more work the softwarecontractor got, but without ever having totake responsibility for the end product.

The problem with this lack of a suitablecustomer/supplier equilibrium, or divisionof responsibilities, came to a head withESOC’s SCOS II project, where, for thefirst time, an ambitious attempt was madeto write comprehensive user requirementsfor a reusable spacecraft-control system.The resulting User Requirements


Console at the XMM-Newton Science Operations Centre atVillafranca, near Madrid

Artist’s impression of the Envisat spacecraft

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Document was impressive, with over 7500requirements, but they were neither layerednor prioritised for staged implementation.There was no resistance from the supplier’sside because under the FUP approach,which was then the norm, the supplier didnot have to make any committing costestimate.

In 1995, the concept of Firm Fixed Price(FFP) contracts for the development ofspacecraft control systems and simulatorswas systematically introduced at ESOC forsoftware development. This was motivatedat the time not by issues of risk ownership,but rather by the need to move contractstaff off-site to their own companies’premises to relieve site overcrowding,something that was much more practicableunder an FFP regime whereby thecontactor is providing either a service or aproduct. This idea very much influencedthe new ‘frame contracts’ that were issuedaround that time (in fact, late 1996). Theresult was: • Far more rigorous scrutiny of

requirements by frame contractors.• Equitable risk sharing between ESA and

its suppliers.• Formal change control (Contract Change

Notices, or CCNs) for changes inrequirements. A consequence was thatend-users became more careful aboutdefining their requirements.

Projects that immediately benefitedfrom the new regime included:• the development of the XMM-Newton

Science Operations Centre (SOC)• the development of the Envisat Mission

Control System (MCS)• the consolidation of the SCOS II

command chain.

The XMM-Newton SOC is aparticularly good example because thesoftware was developed in London andRome, integrated in Darmstadt, Germany,and finally installed and accepted at ESA’sVillafranca ground station in Spain. Theteam consisted of over 50 softwaredevelopers at its peak. Although XMM-Newton was launched ahead of the originalschedule, both the control system and theSOC were ready in time.

Advance 3: Devising a good softwareengineering standard Software engineering standards are used bymany people and so they have to be easilyunderstandable and practical to apply. Totake one example, ESA PSS-05-0 covered:• software engineering processes, and• supporting processes (software project

management, software configurationmanagement, software qualityassurance, and software verification andvalidation).

It was a compact volume of about 100pages, covering:• about 200 practices• five major output documents• four plans.

This was a remarkable achievement by theBSSC because it is concise, comprehensibleand contains the right balance: providingsufficient detail, but not too much, andleaving leeway for the application of localpractices. It is not over-prescriptive andfocusses on important reviews and outputs.

It is easy to get this balance wrong, asillustrated by the example of the SCOS IIDevelopment Standard. One of the earlyand, as it turns out, correct decisions takenon the SCOS II Mission Control Systemproject was to use Object-Orienteddevelopment methods, which, it wasthought, demanded iteration during thedevelopment. The SCOS II developmentteam prepared a development standardbased on PSS-05, but explicitly spelling outthe iterations within the phases. This turnedout to be totally impractical, since theiteration involved repeated reviews andassociated document deliveries, which, iffollowed, would have led to reviewoverload. Thus it destroyed the PSS-05equilibrium by taking a highly prescriptiveapproach to iteration.

As anyone who has been involved witharchitectural design will know, the designdescribed in an Architectural DesignDocument does not spring fully formedfrom the minds of the designers. There isalways iteration and re-design, even if it isnot explicitly spelled out. This, however, isnot the main lesson!

Apart from this fundamentalmethodological flaw, the SCOS IIDevelopment Standard was rather difficultto read, perhaps as a result of being writtenwith limited resources by people withoutthe necessary standards-writing skills orexperience. So the main lesson is don’t tryto rewrite software engineering standardsas part of your project. Writing suchstandards is time-consuming and requiresspecial expertise, apart from the fact thatmost project funding does not includeallowances for rewriting standards.

Advance 4: Sustaining expertise viaframe contractsFrame contracts were first introduced atESOC in the early 1980s. The initial ideawas based on the observation that followingthe full classical ESA procurement approachfor all software developments was slow andinefficient, with a high administrativeoverhead. The basic idea of the framecontract is to use the full ESA contractingprocedure to select a limited number ofcompeting contractors that would beawarded all the software development workin a given domain over a 3 to 5 year period.Work packages are awarded competitivelyeither in the initial tendering or later duringthe contract’s duration. A streamlinedcompetition procedure is used for each newwork package.

These frame contracts were an importantadvance because: • they encouraged competition• they developed pools of expertise• the expertise thus developed became a

competitive advantage, not just forESOC, but also for the frame contractorsthemselves who, on the basis ofexperience at ESOC, were able to getwork elsewhere in the space industry.

Advance 5: Increased software productivitythrough reuseA quite remarkable feature of the originalterms of reference of the BSSC is theinclusion of responsibilities relating tosoftware intellectual property rights, andsoftware libraries. We now take the re-use ofsoftware, particularly on our desktop PCs,for granted. In 1977, however, when the


Jones 4/19/05 9:57 AM Page 55


BSSC’s terms of reference were written,software re-use was not such an obviousproductivity winner as it now. It almostcertainly stemmed from the environment atESOC, where re-use started early andseriously with the Multi-Satellite SupportSystem (MSSS) in the early 1970s.

There are various strategies for increasingcomputer programming productivity, butsoftware re-use is arguably the mosteffective. At ESOC the results have beenvery apparent for mission control systems,where the ease of use and functionalrichness of the SCOS-2000 reusablemission control infrastructure has reduceddevelopment costs by a factor of 3-5 overthe past six years or so (see Tables 1 to 3).

The XMM-Newton and SMART-1missions are both very successful examplesof software reuse. The gains are lower inthe case of XMM SOC because there weremany requirements for which reusablesoftware did not exist, but 50% isnevertheless a still-impressive doubling ofproductivity. For SMART-1, only about 7%was new code, giving a very substantialleverage effect: apparently for aninvestment of 7% you get 100%. This is abit over simplistic, because one also has totake into account the costs of integratingthe reused software and testing the wholesystem. The fact remains, however, that avery sophisticated control system wasdeveloped at a low cost.

Software reuse works best when thesoftware has been specifically developedwith reuse in mind, which usually means aconsiderably larger initial investment, andthat the end users must commit to thesoftware’s reuse.

Software Engineering Issues TodaySoftware failuresSoftware failures are still a serious concernfor everyone in the space business, as theaccompanying table shows. ESOC is noexception and there have recently beenseveral potentially mission threateningsoftware failures, including:• MCS failure during the MSG launch and

early operations phase (LEOP) 20minutes after launch.

• Detection of a problem with handlingthe leap year (again in the MCS) a fewdays before the Rosetta launch.

How can such problems be avoided?There is no easy answer to this, but first weshould look into the background. Asexplained above, ESOC now outsources thedevelopment of software, but remainsresponsible for the definition ofrequirements and acceptance testing. Thedelivered system is therefore acceptance-tested against the requirements, for whichgood tools have been developed at ESOC.The problem is that this is ‘black box’testing, in the sense that it is done withouttaking into account the system’s design orstructure, i.e. the box is opaque! As such, itis not exhaustive, and many parts of thesoftware product will not be executed if

only explicit requirements are addressed.Testing against requirements therefore hasto be complemented by extensive structuralor ‘white box’ testing, which should ideallycover all the logic paths through thesoftware. This is in effect outsourced to thesoftware developers. Another factor is thaterror removal usually occurs at the end ofthe development project’s life cycle and inthe event of a schedule crunch is the mostlikely task to get neglected.

The obvious conclusion is that error-freesoftware is an impossible goal. A morerealistic goal is that of producing softwarewithout high-severity errors. We thereforeneed systematic ways of detecting the latter!

ECSS Software Engineering Standards – The Problem of Tailoring

The judicious equilibrium of the originalPSS-05 in terms of prescriptiveness versusfreedom has already been mentioned.What of the latest standard currently in usein ESA, namely ECSS-E-40? Like thesolid international standard ISO 12207 onwhich it is modelled, ECSS-E-40 is basedon the twin concepts of:– comprehensiveness: it covers all types of

projects, including highly critical ones,and

– tailoring to adapt to individual projects.

In the particular case of E-40, tailoring isessential, since if it were applied in full it


Subsystem LOC

XMM Science Ops. Centre 30,000Payload Monitoring 27,000Proposal Handling 17,000Sequence Generation 22,000Archive Management 42,000File Transfer 13,000Payload Calibration 40,000Quick-Look Analysis 32,000Observation Data Handling 14,000Infrastructure/Libraries 13,000Subtotal XSCS w/o SCOS-1 250,000SCOS-1A/B 250,000

Total 500,000

Table 1: XMM-Newton software reuse in terms of lines of code(LOC)

Table 2. SMART-1 MCS reuse figures in units of number ofmodules (files) from each contributing project

Software Origin Source Header Total %

SCOS-2000 R2.2.1 953 929 1882 76.4

Rosetta 139 160 299 12.1

Integral 63 55 118 4.8

Meteosat Second Generation 2 3 5 0.2

SMART-1 73 85 158 6.4

Total 1230 1232 2465

Jones 4/19/05 9:57 AM Page 56


would be too heavy and prescriptive andwould result in too many outputdocuments, many of which have to bedelivered several times. However, thesensible tailoring of a complex standardlike ECSS-E-40 requires a detailedunderstanding of the whole standard,which the average software developer orproject manager does not possess. Twoapproaches have therefore been identified:

– Use of a tailoring tool: The latter allowsthe developer to answer a set ofquestions about the project and the tooltailors out requirements in a consistentway, according to the answers. The toolcan then print a table of retainedrequirements and output documentsrequired.

– Organizational tailoring: For anorganization such as ESOC many of the

projects are similar, and so it could beexpected that the same tailored standardcould be used for all of them.Alternatively, a limited number oftailored versions could be considered,corresponding to different categories ofprojects in the organization, e.g. safety-critical and other (i.e. non-safety-critical) projects.The second approach is the one weto apply at ESOC.

ConclusionIt is time to return to the question posed inthe title of this paper, namely ‘SoftwareEngineering: are we getting better at it?’The reader will hopefully agree that, withthe major advances described here, wehave come a long way in the last 25 years,and that ESA as an organization is in amuch better position than when the BSSCwas first set up to establish softwareengineering standards for the Agency.

Firstly, this article has looked at softwareengineering as a branch of the empiricaldiscipline of computing and asked if lawsor rules exist to describe the practices orprocesses concerned. The conclusion isthat while there is no ‘unified field theory’of software engineering, there is a usefulbody of rules and hypotheses.

Secondly, it has highlighted a number ofpractical advances in the application ofsoftware engineering at ESOC that havedemonstrably contributed to sustainablesuccess in developing software, and insome cases have helped to reduce costs byremarkable amounts. The conclusion hereis that we have indeed got much better atsoftware engineering, and advances havealso been made in the management andcontractual approaches. However, the needfor vigilance is eternal: with highlycomplex space systems there is always adanger of something going wrong, nomatter how careful we think we have been about software development andvalidation. r


Project % Reuse Productivity gain

XMM-Newton 50 2Science Ops. CentreSMART-1 Misson Control Centre 93.6 16

Project Incident Root cause

Ariane 501, Launch failure, Lack of properJune 1996 loss of 4 Cluster software and system

spacecraft validation

Mars Climate Orbiter, Loss of Orbiter Confusion betweenSeptember 1998 imperial and metric

units. Lack of propersoftware/systemvalidation

Mars Polar Lander, Loss of Lander Software error forcedDecember 1998 premature shutdown

of landing engine:lack of proper softwarevalidation

Titan-4B, Failure to put USAF Centaur upper stageApril 1999 Milstar spacecraft into failed to ignite.

useful orbit Decimal-point errorin the guidance system. Lack of propersoftware validation

Delta-3, Launch aborted Failure of on-board April 1999 software to ignite main

engine. Lack of proper software validation

PAS-9, Loss of ICO Global Error in an update toArch 2000 Communication F-1 ground software. Lack

spacecraft of proper software validation

Table 3. Productivity gains from software reuse

Table 4. Software-related mission failures

Jones 4/19/05 9:57 AM Page 57

The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) in the new Maxwell test facility at ESTEC in Noordwijk (NL)

popovitch 4/19/05 10:13 AM Page 58


Test Facility

C hristened “Maxwell’, after James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) who unified the physical laws of electricity and magnetism with equationsknown as ‘Maxwell’s Equations’, the new EMC chamber that has recently come on stream at ESTEC is the perfect facility for testing the electrical and magnetic characteristics of Europe’s largest and most advanced spacecraft payloads. The chamber’s spacious internal dimensions

of 14.5 metres x 10.7 metres x 11 metres mean that it can handle the largest satellites compatible with Ariane-5 single-passenger launches.

What is EMC?Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) is defined as: ‘the ability of equipment to operate safely within a defined electromagneticenvironment without causing or suffering unacceptable degradation as a result of electromagnetic interference’. EMC testing istherefore an integral part of any spacecraft's pre-launch qualification and verification programme, along with mechanical and thermaltesting, and similarly requires dedicated facilities to achieve the appropriate levels of accuracy.

The EMC verification process can be separated into two broad categories of activities:- Electromagnetic immunity and radiated susceptibility testing: to verify the ability of a device to tolerate disturbances.- Radiated emissions testing: to characterise the level of disturbance generated by the device.

‘Maxwell’– A New State-of-the-Art EMC Test Facility

Jean-Luc Suchail, Alexandre Popovitch & Philippe LagetTesting and Electromagnetics Divisions, ESA Directorate of Technical and Quality Management, ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands

The Causes and Effects of Electromagnetic Interference

Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) can be either mission-dependent or intrinsically related to undesirable interaction between thevarious systems onboard the spacecraft, and therefore include, for example:– electrical static discharge due to space-environment interactions– intra-system common mode phenomena– transients due to the switching on and off heavy electrical loads– spurious radio frequencies in receiver bandwidths (so-called ‘intermodulation’).

The consequences of EMI-related disturbances are generally nuisances affecting the mission or reducing the efficiency of somespacecraft functions. They may also translate into irreversible loss of operational capability, with an impact on scientific andprogrammatic yields. The main effects are:– temporary or permanent telemetry interruption/corruption– noisy scientific data, or channel outages on telecommunications satellites– accidental tripping of safety devices, spurious commands, electronic resets (e.g. clocks), spacecraft switching into safe mode– damage to or loss of power supplies.

The most extreme consequence is total loss of the spacecraft.


Technical and Quality Management


Spacecraft EMC TestingSpacecraft EMC tests are performedthroughout the successive phases of the project to verify that the requirementsapplicable from equipment level all theway up to system level have been properly implemented. The testing iscarried out inside a dedicated facility known as an EMC chamber,sometimes referred to as an ‘anechoic’(i.e. reflection-free) chamber. It shields the spacecraft’s receivers from out-side transmitters, such as local TV broadcast stations and mobiletelephones.

Reciprocally, the chamber allows thesatellite’s transmitters (e.g. thecommunications system) to transmit theirsignals just as they would in space. Thisverification covers both normal andcritical mission phases to ensure that thesatellite electronics will function exactly asthey should.

The New ‘Maxwell’ FacilityThe limited volume of theprevious EMC chamber atESTEC had meant that, forseveral years, it was nolonger compatible with thesize of current spaceprojects. Some projects hadtherefore used the antennacompact payload test rangeinstead, but this chamberrequired significant re-configuration for EMCtesting and was notoptimised for this type oftest. Some projects builtdismountable anechoiccorner structures to performradio-frequency auto-compatibility measure-ments, but installing anddismounting them waslaborious, they generated astorage problem when not inuse, and were still notoptimised for EMC testing.

To overcome theseproblems, an existingverification support area in

the ESTEC Test Centre has been used toerect a large EMC chamber, together witha dedicated control room, a room forcustomer-supplied electrical ground-support equipment, and the requisitehardware storage areas. The new facilityprovides an extremely clean electro-magnetic environment, with outstandingshielding and attenuation of up to 40 GHz.Specially designed air-cooled high-powerdissipation walls make it possible to testthe latest high-power telecommunicationssatellites with local dissipation capabilitiesof up to 3 W/cm2. An especially large door(11m high x 6m wide) provides directaccess from the Test Centre’s integrationarea to the chamber for Ariane-5 single-passenger sized satellites, transported on anon-conductive 5 m x 5 m air-cushionpallet with an SWL of 15 tonnes, whichglides over an anti-static epoxy-coated

floor. High-cleanliness absorbers line theceiling, floor and doors, and state-of-the-art fire detection and suppression systemsensure a safe testing environment for thepriceless flight-model satellites.

To achieve the best possible electro-magnetic screening performance, thewhole chamber (which is a Faraday cage)has been insulated from its supportingstructure by means of high-mechanical-strength epoxy isolators and connected to adedicated clean-earth grounding system.The latter was specially built by sinking a150 m deep pit in the ground outside thebuilding. A 100 m-long copper electrodewas then inserted into this pit (achievingjust a 0.2 ohm resistance). Last but notleast, an over-voltage protection systemwas instwalled between the groundingfacility and the building to providelightning protection.

To provide access for signal cablesbetween the test chamber and theintegration area, EGSE (Electrical GroundSupport Equipment) and control rooms,feedthrough panels have been installed inthe walls. Blank panels can easily bemachined and fitted with appropriatefeedthrough connectors, according tocustomer requirements, and installedbefore a particular test is carried out.

The radio-frequency absorbers on thewalls of the chamber are of paramountimportance in terms of the chamber’s finalperformance, as their role is to preventradio-frequency waves from reflecting onthe Faraday screening and thereby to

The new Maxwell test chamber

Fire-resistance testing of the carbon-loaded foam pyramids atTNO in Delft (NL)



simulate an infinite environment aroundthe spacecraft. The fire-retardant, resistivecarbon-loaded foam pyramids (meetingclean-room class-100 000 conditions) aremounted on supporting rails on the wallsand glued to the ceiling and doors. Theabsorbers are manufactured using Nomexsubstrate honeycomb panels, providing air-circulation channels within their structurefor improved cooling. When high-powertests are performed, an additional forced

air-cooling system can be turned on forlocal areas. This system injectscompressed air into the tips and edges ofthe absorbers to increase the dissipationcapabilities of the cones.

During such high-power tests, thetemperature of the walls can be monitoredin real time using an infrared camera anddisplayed on monitors in the control andEGSE rooms. High-sensitivity detectorsprovide an early warning to the ESTECcentral security desk should any two of thesensors reach their first alarm level. At thesecond threshold, the chamber’s doors willclose automatically, and after 30 seconds afire-extinguishing gas (Inergen) will bereleased into the chamber through 15nozzles located on the sidewalls andceiling, reducing the oxygen level to lessthan 12% within 2 minutes and sustainingthat level for over 20 minutes.

ConclusionWith the completion and inauguration ofthe Maxwell facility, ESA/ESTEC hascomplemented its unique suite of

environmental test facilities – thermalvacuum (LSS), acoustic (LEAF), andmechanical vibration (Hydra) – with astate-of-the art EMC facility, therebycatering for all of the qualification testneeds for Ariane-5 single-passenger-classpayloads. The first major customer to usethe new EMC facility, in Autumn 2004,was the first flight model of the EuropeanAutomated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), called‘Jules Verne’. r

Test Facility

One of the many fire-extinguisher nozzles in the new chamber

Thermal imaging of the new chamber’s high-power-dissipationabsorber cones during a power-dissipation test


Programmes


Programmes

in Progress

Status end December 2004

Blue Pages B121 4/19/05 9:50 AM Page 64


In Progress

ROSETTA

ARTEMIS

GNSS-1/EGNOS

ALPHABUS

GAIA

JWST

BEPICOLOMBO

GALILEOSAT

PROBA-2

SLOSHSAT

EOPP

ENVISAT

ADM-AEOLUS

METOP-2

MSG-1

COLUMBUS

ATV

NODE-2 & -3

CUPOLA

ERA

DMS (R)

ISS SUPPORT & UTIL.

EMIR/ELIPS

MFC

ARIANE-5 DEVELOP.

ARIANE-5 PLUS

FIRST LAUNCH OCT. 2005

LAUNCH JANUARY 2009

LAUNCH OCTOBER 2006

LAUNCHES AUG. 2006 & OCT. 2008

LAUNCH NOV. 2007

LAUNCHED JULY 2000

BIO, FSL, EPM with COLUMBUS

OPERATIONAL

AR5-ECA QUALIF. LAUNCHEDFEBRUARY 2005

APCF-6/BIOBOX-5/ARMS/BIOPACK/FAST-2/ERISTO

MATROSHKA

VEGA FIRST LAUNCH NOVEMBER 2007

FOTON-MI PCDF

EML-2MARES

MSG MELFI EDR/EUTEF/SOLAR

HERSCHEL/PLANCK

CRYOSAT

MSG-2/3/4

VENUS EXPRESS

LISA PATHFINDER

GOCE

SMOS

GNSS-1/EGNOSGNSS-1/EGNOS

DOUBLE STARTC-1

MAXUS-6

EMCS/PEMSFOTON-M2

EML-1

FOTON-M3TEXUS-42MAXUS-7

MSL

ASTRONAUT FLT.

MASER-10

PROJECT 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007J FMAM J J A SOND J FMAM J J A SOND J FMAM J J A SOND J FMAM J J A SOND J FMAM J J A SOND J FMAM J J A SOND J FMAM J J A SOND COMMENTS

SC

IEN

TIF

IC

PR

OG

RA

MM

E

EA

RT

H O

BS

ER

VA

TIO

N

PR

OG

RA

MM

E

TE

CH

NO

L.

PR

OG

.

CO

MM

S./N

AV.

PR

OG

RA

MM

E

HU

MA

N S

PA

CE

FLI

GH

T, M

ICR

OG

RA

VIT

Y

& E

XP

LOR

AT

ION

PR

OG

RA

MM

E

LAU

NC

HE

R

PR

OG

.

DEFINITION PHASE

OPERATIONS

MAIN DEVELOPMENT PHASE

ADDITIONAL LIFE POSSIBLELAUNCH/READY FOR LAUNCH

STORAGE

SPACE TELESCOPE

ULYSSES

SOHO

HUYGENS

XMM-NEWTON

ERS-2

CLUSTER

INTEGRAL

LAUNCHED APRIL1990

LAUNCHED OCTOBER 1990

LAUNCHED DECEMBER 1995


LAUNCHED DECEMBER 1999

PROBA-1 LAUNCHED OCTOBER 2001

LAUNCHED APRIL 1995

RE-LAUNCHED MID-2000


LAUNCHED MARCH 2004

LAUNCHED JULY 2001

OPERATIONS START 2005

LAUNCH MID-2011

FIRST LAUNCH 2005

LAUNCH 2ND HALF 2006

LAUNCHED FEBRUARY 2005

LAUNCH JUNE 2005

LAUNCH AUG. 2006

LAUNCH FEB. 2007

LAUNCH OCT. 2007

LAUNCHED MARCH 2002

LAUNCH APRIL 2006

LAUNCH 2008

LAUNCHED AUGUST 2002

LAUNCH AUGUST 2007

LAUNCH MSG-2 JUNE 2005LAUNCH MSG-3 2009 MSG-4 STOR. 2007

LAUNCH OCTOBER 2005

LAUNCH END-2008

LAUNCH AUGUST 2011

LAUNCH APRIL 2012

TC-1 LAUNCHED DEC. 2003TC-2 LAUNCHED JULY 2004

TC-2

MARS EXPRESS LAUNCHED JUNE 2003

SMART-1 LAUNCHED SEPTEMBER 2003


Programmes


Hubble SpaceTelescope

From an operational point of view, the Hubblespacecraft is operating nominally, with theexception of the Space Telescope ImagingSpectrograph (STIS), one of the five onboardscience instruments, which failed on 3 August2004. However, following a focus adjustmenton 22 December, analysis of data takenshortly before and after the adjustment showsa change in the point-spread function ellipticitypattern consistent with the return to nominalfocus.

Operation of the Advanced Camera forSurveys (ACS) was ‘suspended’ on 28 December due to a reset on the mainelectronics board. This was the first time sinceACS installation that this had happened andanalysis suggested that it was due to aparticle impact during HST’s passage throughthe South-Atlantic Anomaly. The computer wasreset on 30 December and the ACS returnedto normal operation and resumed its plannedobserving schedule.

In case HST needs to be operated with onlytwo gyros before a refurbishment mission cantake place, development work on the ‘two-gyroscience mode’ has continued. Detailedsimulations show that the impact of jitter onimage quality is substantially less thanoriginally assumed, so that a ‘voluntary’ entryinto two-gyro mode is now being discussed topreserve the lifetime of the four gyros currentlyoperating. The first in-orbit tests withoutinstrument involvement were carried out inNovember and December 2004.

The Cycle-14 Call for Proposals was issued in mid-October, with a deadline for thesubmission of Phase-I information by 21 January 2005.

HST’s near-infrared vision is hot on the trail of a possible planetary companion to a relativelybright young brown dwarf located 225 light-years away in the southern constellation Hydra.It is thought that the companion is a planetbecause it is dimmer and cooler than the browndwarf. Because a planet beyond our Solar

The unique perspective offered by Ulysses’orbit lends itself naturally to multi-spacecraftstudies of transient solar-wind features. Goodexamples are the SOHO-Ulysses campaignsconducted when Ulysses is located off thelimbs of the Sun as seen from Earth. Remote-sensing observations from SOHO can then beused to track disturbances leaving the Sun inthe direction of Ulysses, and the in-situmeasurements at Ulysses reveal the evolutionof these structures as they travel outwards inthe heliosphere. A prerequisite is the ability toidentify the same parcel of solar-wind plasmaat both locations.

During a recent SOHO-Ulysses campaign,when Ulysses was at a distance of 4.3 AU and27 degN off the west limb of the Sun, it waspossible for the first time to identify the samevery hot plasma remotely at the Sun withSOHO, and in-situ at Ulysses. Four largeCoronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) wereobserved by SOHO leaving the Sun in thegeneral direction of Ulysses over a period ofseveral days. By the time they reachedUlysses some 15 days later, these transientshad apparently merged to form a single largesolar-wind structure that drove a stronginterplanetary shock. The plasma of thismerged structure contained unusually largeenhancements in highly ionised iron ions(charge state Fe16+), indicating a high-temperature source. Such high charge statesare often seen in the solar wind and havebeen identified with CMEs. The data fromSOHO/UVCS also showed high Fe chargestates, indicating very hot plasma (6-10 milliondegrees K) that was apparently produced highin the solar atmosphere, above 1.5 solar radii.The most likely source of such hot plasma wasa reconnection event occurring in post-flaremagnetic loops.

SOHO Big bang from a very productive regionRegion NOAA 10720 has turned out to be oneof the most actively flaring regions of the lastfew years, with 15 M-class and 5 X-class eventsoccurring since mid-January. The biggest flareso far occurred early on 20 January, an X7.1that peaked at 7UT (2 am EST).

System has never been imaged directly, thisremarkable observation required Hubble’sunique abilities to follow up previous obser-vations made by astronomers with the EuropeanSouthern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope(VLT) in Chile. HST’s observations will test andvalidate that the object is indeed a planet.

ISO The third (and final) demonstration of theAstrophysical Virtual Observatory wassuccessfully conducted at ESAC in January.The stellar science case ‘The transition fromAGB stars to Planetary Nebulae’ madeextensive use of ISO data accessible via VO-compliant tools, in cooperation withdevelopers. The meeting marked the transitionto the EURO-VO project.

ISO continues to have a significant presencein the refereed literature, with some 130papers published during 2004, covering allareas of astronomy. Recent highlights includethe detection of methylene in the interstellarmedium and the mapping of dust grains inmolecular clouds, showing their destructioninto clusters of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydro-carbons away from the generating star.

UlyssesThe spacecraft and its scientific payload are ingood health, and data return has remainedexcellent (average of 97% over the 14-yearmission to date, and 98.2% during the last 5 years). Because of the spacecraft’s greatdistance from the Sun and the decreasingoutput from the Radioisotope ThermoelectricGenerator (RTG), the general onboard thermalenvironment is currently well below the lowerlimits originally foreseen for the mission. Themost critical item in this respect is thehydrazine fuel of the Reaction ControlSubsystem, which must be prevented fromfreezing if at all possible. This places additionalconstraints on spacecraft operations, limitingthe flexibility for assigning measurementopportunities to those experiments that are notpart of the core payload.



In Progress

Even before the flare’speak, energetic protonswere pummeling SOHO aswell as other spacecraft.The particles showed upas a ‘snow storm’ in theLASCO and EIT imagesas they hit the detectorsand deposited part of theirenergy. The SOHOspacecraft experiencedminor glitches that couldbe fixed by groundcontrollers, thanks to aclever software upgradethat was performed in1999. Without thisupgrade, SOHO wouldhave been thrown into aspacecraft emergencymode due to the loss of itsguide star. With theimproved software, severalstars are tracked at thesame time and losing theprimary one is thereforenot a major problem, as

long as there are more stars left to track.During the first few hours of the storm, fourstars were lost. Two of SOHO's instruments,CDS and UVCS, were manually put into safemode by turning down high voltages, to avoidnegative effects from the bombardment.

This particular radiation storm was especiallyinteresting because of the influx of high-energy protons (>100 MeV). In fact, accordingto a NOAA-SEC report it was the strongeststorm since October 1989. A rare, strongGround-Level Event (GLE) was also observed.GLEs are increases in the ground-levelneutrons detected by neutron monitors andare generally associated with very-high-energyprotons (>500 MeV). Elevated neutrons atground level means there are high fluxes ofenergetic protons near Earth. Such high-energy radiation storms can be particularlyhazardous to spacecraft, and to com-munication, navigation, and aviationoperations at high latitudes. Scientists are stilldebating whether the energetic particles fromsuch events are accelerated by the flare itself,by the shock front of an associated CoronalMass Ejection (CME), or both.SOHO/MDI image of the growth of active region NOAA 10720 from 11 to 16 January 2005

SOHO/LASCO C2 images taken just before and just after the peak of the flare, showing a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) associated with it. In the second image, the CME is already totally obscured by theproton shower


Programmes


XMM-Newton XMM-Newton operations continue to runsmoothly. The XMM-Newton ground stationswere used to support the launch of Helios, andSMART-1’s orbit-insertion manoeuvres at theMoon. This involved the loss of some 40 hoursof science time. The upgrading of the overallground segment from SCOS-1b to SCOS-2000 is continuing. Recently, commands weresuccessfully sent to the spacecraft using thenew SCOS-2000 system, which is expected tobe fully operational by 1 April 2005.

The status of the observing programmes iscurrently as follows:- AO-2 programme: 99.8% complete- AO-3 programme: 84.8% complete.

Completion of the above programmes isexpected by March 2005, commensurate withthe planned start of AO-4 observations.Currently, over 3771 observation sequenceshave been executed and the data for 3680 ofthese have already been shipped. The XMM-Newton Fourth Announcement of Opportunity(AO-4) closed on 8 October. A total of 657valid proposals were submitted, requesting101 747 ksec of science time, which amountsto a seven-fold oversubscription. Proposalswere received from 484 different PrincipalInvestigators from 23 countries – mostly ESAMember States, the United States and Japan.The number of countries involved increases to35 when co-investigators are also taken intoaccount. About 1600 individual scientists wereinvolved in the response to AO-4.

Version 6.1.0 of the XMM-Newton ScienceAnalysis System (SAS) was released on 24 November. The new version offers variousimprovements, among the most important ofwhich are the background-modelling capabilityfor the reflection-grating spectrometers andmajor changes to the OM grism dataprocessing with the aim of making it moreuser-friendly. Version SAS 6.1.0 wasdownloaded no less than 120 times during the first week following its release.

The XMM-Newton Science Archive (XSA) hassome 1300 registered users. In October 2004,a total of about 980 separate data sets were

downloaded by 30 users, whilst Novembershowed exceptionally high usage with about5500 downloads.

A total of 719 papers based either completelyor in part on XMM-Newton observations hadbeen published in the refereed literature by theend of December 2004, 306 of them in 2004alone.

ClusterThe four spacecraft and their instruments areoperating well. An anomaly has been observedin one of the CIS (ion) detectors on spacecraft2, and further investigations are in progress.An onboard computer on spacecraft 4switched from main to redundant mode on 18 October, and there was a similar switchoveron 31 October on spacecraft 3, probably dueto computer-memory errors caused byenergetic particles. Both spacecraft and theirpayloads were successfully reconfigured a fewdays later.

JSOC and ESOC operations are continuingnominally. During the September - Decemberperiod, the usual automatic-gain-controlfluctuations due to ionospheric disturbanceswere observed. When these fluctuations aretoo strong, the dumping of data is interruptedand the spacecraft switch to recording mode.The data return from September to Decemberwas still above 98.8%.

A proposal to extend the Cluster mission forfour years, with a mid-term review to check thestatus of the spacecraft, is being prepared forthe February 2005 meeting of ESA’s ScienceProgramme Committee (SPC).

Solar-wind discontinuities have been studiedwith Cluster. It has been shown that MinimumVariance Analysis (MVA), a widely used data-analysis technique with one spacecraft, ismuch less reliable than previously thought fordetermining the type of interplanetarydiscontinuities. In addition, the classificationbetween tangential and rotationaldiscontinuities could be revisited and gavedifferent results from previous studies withsingle-spacecraft methods.

An ISSI book compiling all results obtained byCluster on the dayside boundaries of themagnetosphere is in the final stages of editing.It contains chapters on the bow shock,magnetopause and cusp, and presents thecrucial advantages of having four spacecraftoperating simultaneously compared toprevious single- or two-spacecraft missions.

Integral The spectrometer (SPI) has generated its firstall-sky map of the emission produced whenelectrons and their anti-matter equivalents,positrons, meet and annihilate one another.This process produces gamma-ray line

The SPI all-sky map of the 511 keV emission resulting from the annihilation of electrons and positrons. This map, in galacticcoordinates, shows that the emission is, so far, only seen towards the centre of our Galaxy(Credit: J. Knödlseder and SPI team)



The planning of science observations for the2005 eclipse season (starting in January)requires continuous trade-offs to be madebetween the power margins required andscience observations requested. The firsteclipses of the 2005 season show thermal and power behaviours fully in line withexpectations.

Reports on MARSIS boom-deploymentbehaviour have been received from JPL andAstrium. An independent team of experts isevaluating them and a first review meeting hasbeen planned. A decision regarding thedeployment, and its possible date, shouldfollow soon afterwards.

Some 300 abstracts were received inresponse to the call for papers for thededicated Mars Express Science Conference,which will take place at ESTEC in the week of21-25 February 2005.

A paper was published in Nature on a study of the time-stratigraphic relationships of volcanic and glacial structures on Mars inunprecedented detail. This provides insightinto the geological evolution of Mars. It isshown that calderas on five major volcanoeson Mars have undergone repeated activationand resurfacing during the last twenty percent of Martian history, with phases ofactivity as young as two million years,suggesting that the volcanoes are potentiallystill active today. Glacial deposits at the baseof the Olympus Mons escarpment showevidence for repeated phases of activity asrecently as about four million years ago.Morphological evidence shows that snow andice deposition on the Olympus construct atelevations of more than 7000 metres led toepisodes of glacial activity at this height. Eventoday, water ice protected by an insulatinglayer of dust may be present at high altitudeon Olympus Mons.

In Progress

The 120 km-diameter lunar crater ‘Pythagoras’ photographed bySMART-1’s AMIE instrument. The two images used in this mosaicwere taken from a distance of 4000 km on 29 and 30 December2004. The crater’s terraced walls are 5000 metres high(Copyright ESA/SPACE-X, Space Exploration Institute)

emission with an energy of 511 keV. The exactenergy, shape, and width of this featureprovide information about the medium in whichthe annihilation is occurring, and theemission’s distribution on the sky providesclues to the source, or sources, of the anti-matter – one of the mysteries that Integral ishoping to solve.

The latest SPI results show that the emissionis, so far, only seen towards the centre of ourGalaxy (the galactic bulge). J. Knödlseder andco-workers show that the sky distribution isconsistent with galactic bulge or halodistributions, the combination of a bulge and a disc component, or the combination of anumber of point sources. Such distributionsare expected if the anti-matter is created ineither X-ray binaries, novae, Type Iasupernovae or, even more excitingly, light Dark Matter. The detailed spectral shape ofthis feature was obtained from ultra-deepexposures of the galactic-centre region.E. Churazov and co-workers report that theline has an energy of 510.954 ± 0.075 keVand a width of 2.37 ± 0.25 keV. These are themost precise measurements of this featureever obtained, and they indicate that theannihilation mainly occurs in an interstellarregion with a temperature greater than 7000K.The next step is to combine the spectral andspatial information in order to betterunderstand the distribution of the positronsources and how the positrons are transportedin the Galaxy.

Mars ExpressThe last quarter of 2004 was a very productiveperiod of science data-taking, except for a oneweek in early December, during which ananomaly with the solid-state mass memoryprevented nominal operations, and someantenna problems towards the end ofDecember. The memory anomaly can probablybe fixed with a software patch.

Early 2005 saw a repeat, twice within a fewdays, of an anomaly in the Solar Array DriveElectronics (SADE), with reporting of a solar-array movement not in line with thatcommanded.

SMART-1SMART-1 was inserted into lunar orbit on 15 November, after a month of free flightpassing from Earth-gravity-dominated spaceinto the Moon’s sphere of influence. TheElectric Propulsion (EP) system was thenturned on again to lower initial lunar orbittowards the target operational polar orbit. Thisspiralling down was briefly interrupted for a fewdays at the end of 2004/beginning of 2005 topermit observation of the lunar surface.

On 11 January, when the orbit was roughly1000 km x 5000 km, the EP thrust was againinterrupted, for about three weeks, in order to make use of the very good illuminationconditions and the spacecraft’s alreadyrelatively low altitude to perform substantialmapping of the lunar surface on both the nearand far sides. After the resumption of EPthrusting in early February, the final lunar orbitat about 300 km x 3000 km altitude is expectedto be reached in about 15 days. All of thepayload instruments will then be commissionedfor the lunar phase and the main science phasewill start. The nominal lunar science phase willend in July 2005, to be followed, if approved bythe ESA Science Programme Committee(SPC), by a one-year extension.


Programmes


• flux-transfer events observed by Double Starthat produce plasma injections observed simultaneously by Cluster

• deceleration of solar-wind ions at the bow shock by a charge-separation electric field, and

• oxygen ionospheric ions observed more often closer to the Earth than further down the tail.

RosettaWith the successful completion of spacecraftand payload commissioning, the managementof the Rosetta mission has been transferredfrom the Project Department to the Researchand Scientific Support Department. TheSecond Mission Commissioning ResultsReview was successfully completed on 3 December, with the Review Board meetingat ESOC (D). All spacecraft and payload-commissioning objectives were met. Oneexception was the Interference Campaign,which could not be completed because theROSINA instrument was experiencingsoftware problems. The necessary softwareupgrades are being prepared and it is plannedto repeat the campaign at the end of 2006,before the Mars flyby. Since 17 October, i.e. since completion of the last phase of thepayload-commissioning activities, thespacecraft has been in ‘quiet cruise mode’.

The SREM (Standard Radiation Monitor) willbe switched back on in mid-January 2005 andwill be kept active for background-monitoringoperations. All other instruments will remaininactive. However, limited payload activities willresume at the end of January with theuploading of software for OSIRIS, followed bydelta-commissioning activities for ROSINA.

Preparations for the first Earth swingby havestarted, with Rosetta due to pass within 1900 km of the Earth at 22:00 UTC on 4 March 2005. The Rosetta ScienceOperations Centre has taken full responsibility

for the first time for preparing the scienceoperations for a specific mission scenario,namely the Pointing and Interference Scenario,involving the first joint operations of the fullscience-payload instrument complement.

ESA’s Planetary Science Data Archive hasbeen fully implemented and the first data setsfrom the ground-based comet-observationcampaigns have been ingested.

Venus ExpressThe project continues to progress according to plan, with the spacecraft successfullycompleting Integrated System Testing activitiesand starting the environmental test campaignin the integration facilities at Intespace inToulouse (F). The spacecraft has alsosuccessfully passed two command and datacompatibility tests with the ESOC MissionOperations Centre in Darmstadt (D), therebydemonstrating its functionality within theoverall Venus Express mission system.

The Venus Express ground segment isprogressing well, with all elements in fulldevelopment. The new ESA station atCebreros, Spain, which will be the VenusExpress operations station, is advancing well.

During the largest geomagnetic storm of 2004,the redundant attitude-control computer failedon the TC-1 spacecraft. Now both spacecrafthave non-functioning attitude computers, withthe consequence that there is no attitudecontrol. Fortunately, both spacecraft arespinning at 15 rpm and are therefore stable.A slow drifting of their spin axes is observed:about 0.9 deg per month on TC-1 and 1.5 degper month on TC-2. This means that it shouldnot cause any problems before the end ofnominal mission lifetime (31 July 2005). Inaddition, initial computations from China showthat the drift of TC-1 will reverse in a fewmonths and go back towards post-launchattitude. An investigation is on-going to find thesource of the problem. Memory-chip failureseems to be the most likely cause. Attitudeinformation can be derived from themagnetometer data at perigee, and the routineprocessing of the latter has started.

The European instruments are operatingnominally. Resets on PEACE (electron sensor)are still occurring, some of which are related tothe Sun pulse not being provided at regularintervals to the instrument. Investigationcontinues with the Chinese. Work-aroundsolutions are being used, such as manual resetsof the instrument and switch-offs inside radiationbelts. Other instruments are not sensitive to thisproblem and are working normally.

The European Payload Operations System(EPOS) coordinates the operations for theseven European instruments on TC-1 and TC-2, and is running smoothly. A few problemsare still occurring with the ground stations, butthe data return has improved, especially sinceavoiding periods of antenna interference onTC-2. The return in November for the TC-1magnetometer was more than 94%.

The Double Star Workshop held on 8-10November 2004 was a great success and thecomplementarity of the Cluster and DoubleStar missions was clearly apparent. Many newresults were presented, a few highlights being:• the magnetic reconnection observed by

both Double Star TC-1 and Cluster at the magnetopause,

The Venus Express spacecraft mounted on the vibration table atIntespace in Toulouse (F)

Double Star



With the delivery of the last hardwareelements for Herschel by the end of 2004,integration of the flight model has gainedmomentum, starting with the two helium tanks,the insulation shields and the cryostat outervessel. The Critical Design Review (CDR) forthe system and for the Service Module hasbeen completed, with the Board meeting inmid-October. The overall developmentschedule, which takes into account the actualstatus of the hardware production and delivery,now shows a launch date of August 2007.

Development of the Herschel telescope is alsomaking good progress. The primary mirror is atOpteon in Finland, where its surface polishingis nearly complete. A qualification review heldin preparation for the upcoming Herscheltelescope qualification testing in 2005 revealedno major issues.

The hardware development of the Planckreflectors is nearly complete, with the primary-reflector flight-model assembly and coatingcompleted by end-2004. The optical testing ofthe reflectors and the telescope under thecryogenic operating conditions is still provingextremely difficult. A revised test programmehas been established that will be followed forthe flight model.

In Progress

Mounting of the antenna dish at ESA’s Cebreros deep-spaceground station in Spain

The proto-flight model of the Herschel Cryosat Vacuum Vesselundergoing assembly and testing at Astrium in Friedrichshafen (D)

The launch of Venus Express has been con-firmed for 26 October 2005 from the BaikonurCosmodrome in Kazakhstan. A 1270 kglaunch mass for the combined spacecraft andadaptor has also been agreed.

Herschel/PlanckThe integration and testing of the electrical(avionics) model of the Planck Service Moduleis making good progress. The flight model ofthe Service Module structure has beendelivered and integration of the propulsionsubsystem is ongoing. The qualification modelof the Planck Payload Module, fully integratedwith instrument structural models and thequalification-model Planck reflectors, hassuccessfully completed the acoustic-noisetest.

The qualification models of the Herschelscientific instruments have successfullycompleted their functional and performancetesting and have been delivered to industry forintegration into the test cryostat. Also, thePlanck HFI qualification-model instrument hasbeen delivered to Alcatel for integration with aLFI dummy and into the Planck PayloadModule qualification model.

SMART-2/LISAPathfinder

The work of the SMART-2/LISA PathfinderImplementation Phase is in progress. However,a slowdown in activities has been required tophase them with the delayed main payload,and the LISA Technology Package (LTP)consortium start up. The main activity recentlyhas been closure of the actions assigned bythe ESA System Requirements Review. Asuccessful Close-out Review was performed inearly November. The Board concluded that,despite few remaining critical issues regardingthe spacecraft architecture, such as the massmargin and the overall performance budget notbeing completely resolved, the project canproceed until the Preliminary Design Review(PDR), when these issues will be reviewedagain.

The Review also evaluated the status of theLTP system requirements, produced byAstrium GmbH on the basis of the scientificrequirements set by the Principal Investigator(Prof.Vitale from Trento University), the Co-PI(Prof. Danzmann from A. Einstein Institüt inHannover) and ESA. They now form the basisfor the contract that ESA is to award toAstrium GmbH for the ESA contribution to theLTP. A third element that was reviewed was theAmerican equivalent of the LTP, called theDisturbance Reduction System (DRS), alsoaccommodated on LISA Pathfinder.

The LTP development is taking longer thaninitially foreseen, mainly due to some critical


Programmes


items, like the caging mechanisms of theinertial sensor assembly, which are driving theoverall schedule. This implies a late start to the assembly, integration and test (AIT)activities at spacecraft level, which in turnproduces an overall project slippage. Theextent of this delay is currently beingevaluated.

Gaia

The two competitive engineering studiescontinue in industry. The general work onspacecraft design has been finished and thetwo consortia have entered into a phase ofdesign optimisation to ensure that the finaldesign is compatible with the availableresources.

As regards the technology-developmentactivities, a major achievement was thehanding over of the primary mirror from theproduction company to the contractorperforming coating and polishing.

On the launcher side, a contract has beenplaced with Starsem to optimise the launchscenario with a view to providing an increasedlaunch mass for Gaia.

A major Scientific Symposium on 'The Three-Dimensional Universe with Gaia' took place inMeudon, Paris (F) in early October 2004.About 240 scientists attended the event.

James Webb SpaceTelescope (JWST)

Several JWST key activities have beendelayed three months due to NASA fundingproblems in 2005. This includes the overallassembly, integration and validation flow forthe Payload Module Engineering Test Unit, theNIRCam and the production of primary flightmirrors. Sufficient contingency remains toavoid an impact on the launch date accordingto NASA. The deliveries to ESA for NIRSpecand MIRI have not been directly affected.

The remaining System Requirement Reviewswere completed successfully, including thosefor the Ground Segment and the MIRI Dewar.

NIRSpecDelayed agreement with NASA on maininstrument interfaces (envelope and interfacelocations) has delayed the schedule by severalmonths. This has been absorbed by a laterneed date for the Engineering Test Model.An assessment of schedule recovery for theflight model is in progress. The procurementprocess for the subsystems has started.Invitation to Tender (ITT) packages for the firstthree procurements are ready and underreview by ESA.

MIRIThe MIRI Optical Module Preliminary DesignReview (PDR) has been successfullycompleted. Some analyses and internalassembly specifications need to beconsolidated. A course of action has beenagreed to close-out all open issues in advanceof the MIRI System PDR in March 2005. TheMIRI Dewar System Requirements Review(SRR) was successfully concluded betweenJPL and Lockheed Martin (Dewar primecontractor), thereby consolidating the overallDewar schedule. The Dewar has beenallocated an additional 92 kg and is nowcompatible with the MIRI lifetime requirementof 5 years. The first hybridized detectorassemblies are now being tested for integrityat JPL.

ArtemisThe satellite continues to provide its planneddata-relay, land-mobile and navigation serviceswith high quality.

Envisat makes use of up to 15 Ka-bandcommunication links per day via Artemis andrelies on it for over 50% of its data acquisition.This heavy-duty scenario has been inoperation for more than six months and hasproved the value of data relay for providing ahigh volume of data and real-time sceneacquisition. Spot-4 also uses up to twoArtemis optical data links per day, and bothusers have expressed satisfaction with the

service. Since the start of Artemis operationsin 2003, Envisat has accumulated over 4900links or a total of 2300 hours, and Spot-4 hasachieved some 750 links or 135 hours in total.

Several hundred additional optical and RFlinks have been made via Artemis inconnection with the evlauation of systemperformance and interface characteristics forfuture users.

Land-mobile applications have exhibited asteady growth of applications, and a smallincrease in bandwidth was requested by ESAfor 2005 at the annual mobile operators’meeting in December. This submission wassuccessful and the payload has now beenreconfigured to accommodate the new users.Service provision to Telespazio and Eutelsathas continued without interruption.

EGNOS has made regular use of the Artemisnavigation payload via its two earth stations, atScanzano and Torrejon, in preparation for theoperational phase.

System validation tests in preparation forArtemis support to the ATV mission have beensuccessfully executed and pre-launchcompatibility tests with JAXA’s OICETS areunderway. These missions will be followed byEADS-Astrium’s LOLA (a demonstrationmission for optical communication between aUAV and Artemis) and CIRA’s USV (the firstflight of an unmanned re-entry vehicle). Userscenarios with three optical users and five RFusers are then possible, which represents asignificant utilisation of the overall Artemisdata-relay capacity.

CryoSat

The testing activities being performed by theprime contractor, EADS Astrium GmbH (D), onthe CryoSat spacecraft have made significantprogress at IABG (Ottobrunn). The repairactions related to some deficient electroniccomponents have taken longer thananticipated however, causing delays in theprogramme. The spacecraft is now fully re-integrated and nominal testing has resumed.



On the payload side, after its arrival at IABG,the electronics of the SIRAL altimeterdeveloped by Alcatel (F) have been matedwith the double antenna manufactured bySaab (S), and successfully tested. Theintegration on the spacecraft has taken placein a timely manner and the altimeter’sperformance figures are nominal. Followingthis test, the CryoSat satellite has been movedto a dedicated IABG facility to undergo a firstseries of electromagnetic-compatibility tests.

Activities related to the CryoSat groundsegment are progressing according to plan.

The second part of the second SatelliteValidation Test (SVT-1b) was performedsuccessfully by ESOC in November. Theground-segment validation campaign isprogressing well.

Overall, significant progress in the devel-opment of the CryoSat mission has beenmade in the past months. Unfortunately, a fewrepair activities, due mainly to quality problemsreported lately on some electronic parts, havehampered progress. Consequently, the launchhas now been re-scheduled to late-June 2005.

In Progress

The CryoSat satellite ready for the start of electromagnetic-compatability testing at the IABG facility in Ottobrunn (D)

GOCE

The GOCE space-segment developmentactivities are progressing steadily, and severalequipment-level Critical Design Reviews(CDRs) for platform and payload units havebeen carried out as planned.

For the Gradiometer, Alcatel Space hassuccessfully completed the thermal andmechanical testing of the structural thermalmodel. Their activities are presently focussingon the electrical integration and testing of theengineering model. A stiffness anomalydiscovered in three Accelerometer SensorHead flight models integrated at Onera iscurrently under investigation by a teamcomposed of representatives from industryand ESA.

In the platform area, the refurbishment of thesatellite structural-model primary structure hasbeen completed by CASA. The structure wasdelivered to Astrium GmbH in November,allowing the timely commencement of theplatform flight-model integration activities,starting with the installation of the electricalharness, the propulsion pipework and theheater lines. Astrium GmbH has alsocompleted the electrical integration of theplatform engineering-model Test Bench, andfunctional testing of the latter has recentlystarted. Astrium’s Platform Software Test Bedactivities are advancing, using a CommandData Management Unit (CDMU) breadboardand Version 1 of the applications software.

On the solar array, experience from othermissions currently under development hasshown a potential reverse-current stabilityproblem with the baselined GaAs solar cells athigh temperatures. This issue is now beingaddressed at ESA level in an ad-hoc workinggroup. In parallel, a test is presently runningusing a simulated GOCE thermal environmentto assess the suitability of the baseline GaAssolar cells for the GOCE application.


Programmes


In parallel, integration of a full structuralthermal model has started with the integrationof the arm segments including flight-representative mechanisms. Delivery of thecentral hub structure is expected in January2005.

CNES and ESA, with the support of Alcatel(Cannes, F), are preparing the analyses anddocumentation for the satellite PreliminaryDesign Review (PDR) scheduled for March2005. Formalisation of the payload-to-platformInterface Control Documents has the highestpriority.

Following approval by ESA’s Industrial PolicyCommittee (IPC), the procurement of aRussian-built Rockot launcher from Eurockot(Bremen, D) has been initiated.

The Data Processing Ground Segment designphase (Phase-B) was concluded at the end of2004. Commencement of the implementationphase was delayed awaiting the resolution ofprogrammatic and funding issues with theSpanish agency CDTI, which has beenachieved in the meantime.

GOCE Gradiometer structural thermal model’s core

Integration of the arms for the SMOS structural model at EADSCASA

On the ground-segment side, a majormilestone was the successful completion ofthe Ground Segment Design Review inNovember, which confirmed the completenessand consistency of the overall groundsegment. Negotiations with the companyselected to develop the Calibration andMonitoring Facility (CMF) and the Referenceand Planning Facility (RPF) have beencompleted. The related activities were kicked-off in October, and a System RequirementsReview was successfully held in December. Inparallel, a rapid CMF prototyping programmehas been established in order to giveappropriate focus to the interactivity andhuman/machine interface aspects of thefacility. The European GOCE GravityConsortium for the Level-1 to Level-2 dataprocessing facility (HPF) successfullycompleted the Architectural Design andInterface Review in October and theAcceptance Review for a prototype version of the software in December.

SMOSMost payload-subsystem engineering modelshave been delivered to the prime contractor,EADS CASA (Madrid, E) and are in theprocess of being integrated into a reducedengineering model of the overall payload.Critical Design Reviews are being conductedfor those subsystems that have beendelivered, in order to release the flight-unitproduction.

ADM-Aeolus

All elements of the satellite’s structural model have now been delivered, including the instrument structure, which hassuccessfully completed vibration testing.The instrument part of the structural model will be used as an optical/structural/thermalmodel to verify the instrument’s thermalbehaviour before it is integrated with thesatellite platform.

The flight models of the CCD detectors havebeen accepted and are being integrated intothe detector front-end units. Most other flightitems are making good progress.

Problems with laser pump diodes have beenassociated with changes to the commercialmanufacturing process that were supposed tomake the diodes more reliable. Flight diodesare now being manufactured using the precisemethodology used for commercial diodes.They will, however, be subjected to a carefulscreening process after manufacture. As aback-up, assessment contracts are in placewith two other prospective pump-diodesuppliers.

Optical/structural/thermal model of the ADM-Aeolus telescopebeing mounted on the instrument



the open work have been completed. MSG-2assembly, integration and test activities willresume with the preparation of the MSG-2launch campaign, currently planned forFebruary 2005. A launch in June 2005 with co-passenger Insat on an Ariane-5GS launcher isstill to be confirmed.

MSG-3 The MSG-3 spacecraft remains in short-term-storage configuration in the Alcatel clean-room, as it will be used as ‘spare box’ forMSG-2 during its launch campaign. Thereafter,the MSG-3 spacecraft will be put into long-term storage, awaiting its launch date,currently foreseen in 2009.

MSG-4Progress on the MSG-4 pre-integrationactivities is nominal. The UPS module has been shipped to Alcatel Space in Cannes (F), and the pre-equipped antennaplatform has been delivered to Alenia Spazio.The main platform harness has beendelivered, and the main platform is beingfinalised.

In Progress

A facility for laser-testing optical components,both clean and contaminated, in vacuum has been commissioned at DLR in Stuttgart(D), and the first results are becomingavailable.

The model-based Development and VerificationEnvironment has been used to communicate,via electrical ground-support equipment, with a simulated satellite, sending both uplinkedtelecommands and downlinked telemetry.

The ADM-Aeolus Critical Design Review willbe completed in September 2005. The currentlaunch date of October 2007 in under threatas a result of the pump-diode problems. Theproject is negotiating with industry to minimiseany schedule slippages.

MetOpThe integration and testing of the first MetOpsatellite to be launched, MetOp-2, is wellunderway, with the successful completion ofthe mechanical test campaign (vibration,acoustic and shock) at Intespace in Toulouse(F). Notably, the second flight model of IASI – needed to replace the non-flightworthyinstrument currently embarked on the MetOp-2 satellite – has been delivered on time.Activities are on track for completion of theFlight Acceptance Review in the summer.Thereafter, the satellite will be storedalongside MetOp-1, which has already been instorage from the end of 2004. MetOp-2 willthen be re-activated in early 2006 for itslaunch campaign. Launch is now expected inthe second quarter of 2006, followingreadiness of Eumetsat’s ground segment.

Once in orbit, MetOp-2 will be termed MetOp-A, with the second satellite to belaunched (nominally MetOp-1 in 2010) to betermed MetOp-B, and finally MetOp-3, nominallylaunched in 2014, will be termed MetOp-C.

Preparations are well advanced for MetOp-2'slaunch campaign and the subsequentcommissioning phase, and specifically for theso-called SIOV (Satellite In-Orbit Verification)sub-phase, which will check the correctfunctioning of the satellite after launch but

prior to the (extensive) calibration/validationactivities required.

Following completion of the in-orbitcommissioning, the MetOp programme willnominally go into ‘hibernation’ until 2008, whenthe team will be re-activated to complete theintegration of MetOp-3 and to de-store MetOp-1 and make it ready for launch.

Meteosat SecondGeneration (MSG)

MSG-1 (Meteosat-8)Meteosat-8 operations have been nominal,with no spacecraft behavioural anomalies. Theinstrument performance remains excellent, aswitnessed by the beautiful images shown hereand on the Eumetsat website at:www.eumetsat.de.

MSG-2MSG-2 de-storage activities and finalisation of

From about 4 to 14 December 2004, ananticyclonic situation over Central Europe witha strong low-level temperature inversioncaused widespread fog and low-level stratusover Germany, France, the United Kingdomand many other countries. Many valleys andlow-lying areas were shrouded in fog formany days, while mountain areas enjoyedsunny weather with relatively hightemperatures.

The high-resolution visible (HRV) channel onMeteosat-8 is particularly useful formonitoring this kind of wintertime fogsituation. It shows the presence or non-presence of fog/low stratus in the plains andvalleys, the dissolution or non-dissolution ofthe fog during daytime, the presence ofmulti-layer clouds, the cloud-free mountaintops and the channelling of air flow betweenmountain ranges.

The RGB composite (above) shows NIR 1.6,VIS 0.8, VIS 0.6. The image over northernEurope (left) is the HRV channel (Courtesy ofEumetsat)


Programmes


The first mating of the Automated TransferVehicle (ATV-1) flight model Jules Verne hasbeen completed at ESTEC, and the first partof the environmental test campaign, theelectromagnetic-compatibility test, has beensuccessfully completed. Functional testingcontinues in parallel. The System ValidationTest 4B was successfully completed inDecember.

Manufacture and assembly activities for Node3 are progressing. The external structure hasbeen completed and the post-proof NonDestructive Inspection was successfullyperformed.

The post-shipment incoming inspection of theCupola has been successfully performed atKennedy Space Center (KSC).

Ownership of the European Robotic Arm(ERA) flight model was transferred to ESA inNovember, and the flight spares and missionpreparation and training equipment are now instorage at the prime contractor’s site ready fordelivery to Russia. From 22 to 26 November,the Weightless Environmental Test model ofERA was tested underwater at the GagarinCosmonaut Training Centre.

Operations and related ground segments The inauguration of the Columbus ControlCentre (COL-CC) took place on 19 October,

and its integration and final acceptance is stillin progress. Acceptance reviews of severalsubsystems and several important interfacetests with the ATV Control Centre (ATV-CC)have been conducted. A proposal for themaintenance of the Columbus ground facilitieshas been negotiated and agreed with Industry,and in December the COL-CC interface (part1) to the European Astronaut Centre (EAC)was successfully tested.

Significant progress has been made inconsolidating the Columbus Control Centrearchitecture to support both the Italian Soyuzmission, by controlling and commanding thescientific programme of the Europeanexperiments, and the Interim UtilisationActivities.

The first interface tests between the ATV-CCand the Houston Mission Control Centre, andan interface test between the ATV-CC and theRussian Service Module Simulator, have beenconducted successfully.

Outfitting of the Danish and Norwegian UserSupport and Operations Centres (USOCs)was completed in December.

A mass-storage-device controller has failed ina ground-based DMS-R computer. The failedboard has been identified and one of the twospares in the DMS-R inventory will bedelivered to RSC-Energia.

The Matroshka is performing nominally andthe in-orbit science operations are progressingsuccessfully.

Utilisation planning, payload developmentsand peparatory missionsPreparation by the European ScienceFoundation of the Final Report on two Life andPhysical Science User Workshops held inpreparation for the ELIPS-2 programme isapproaching completion.

Activities involving the European Commission(EC) continue, with the TeleMedicine Alliance-Bridge project proceeding nominally towards

Human Spaceflight,Research andApplications

HighlightsSoyuz flight 9S, carrying the Expedition 10crew, was successfully flown to the Inter-national Space Station (ISS) and docked duringthe night of 15-16 October. On 24 October,Soyuz 8S landed safely back on Earth,successfully concluding Increment 9. TheRussian Progress flight 16P successfullydocked with the ISS on 26 December, takingfood and other supplies to the Station. InDecember, NASA confirmed that the ShuttleReturn to Flight now has a planned launchwindow in May/June 2005.

Space infrastructure developmentColumbus schedule-extension activities havebeen formalised with industry and disassemblyof the Columbus module has started. Testingof the first NASA payload rack installed inColumbus, the Human Resource Facility, wassuccessfully completed in October. The TestReview Board for the System Validation Test 2,and the Qualification Review 2 ESA/NASAFinal Board, were successfully held in Octoberand November, respectively.

The Cupola was delivered to the Kennedy Space Center on 8 October 2004 (photo NASA)



the next phase. Signature of the contract forthe IMPRESS Integrated Project (MaterialScience) took place on 22 November, thesame day that the 2nd European MaterialsForum, which aims at setting-up a technologyplatform supported by the EC, was being heldat ESTEC (NL). In December, the ESADirectorates of Science, Earth Observationand Human Spaceflight, Microgravity andExploration jointly reported on the Agency’sscience activities to the EC-ESA JointSecretariat.

Out of 59 projects recommended by theSteering Committee of the International Life-Sciences Working Group in October, 20 werefrom Europe.

By the 12 November deadline of theAnnouncement of Opportunity for Life andPhysical Science released in July 2004, 152proposals had been received, 56 of which areMicrogravity Application Promotion (MAP)related. The peer-selection process is underway, with the review-panel meetings plannedfor mid-January 2005.

Phase-2 of the last MAP continuationproposals is being implemented, andpreparations for the Long Term Head-Down TiltBedrest study on females (WISE) are ongoing.

In October, the Test-Readiness Review for theEuropean Drawer Rack’s functional testingwas successfully held, and the ScienceReference Model of the Fluid-ScienceLaboratory was delivered to the Italian ‘MARS’facility in Naples, where its AcceptanceReview was completed in December.

The Cardiolab Training Model was delivered toEAC in October. In December, the CardiolabData Management Control Unit Ground Model1 (GM-1) was integrated into the EuropeanPhysiology Modules GM-1, whose AcceptanceReview was successfully completed.

The Final Acceptance Reviews (FAR-1) forBiolab and the European Transport Carrierwere successfully concluded in December.

Testing of the EuTEF external payloads andthe SOLAR engineering model on theColumbus Rack Level Test Facility was

successfully completed in November andDecember, respectively.

Agreement has been reached regarding thedevelopment of the PHARAO instrument forthe Atomic Clock Ensemble in Space (ACES),up to completion of the engineering model inDecember 2006. The first part of the statusevaluation for the Space Hydrogen Maser wascompleted in mid-December.

The Protein Crystallisation Diagnostics Facilityflight-model Acceptance Review was started inNovember, and the preliminary acceptance ofthe engineering model was successfullycompleted in December.

The Muscle Atrophy Research and ExerciseSystem (MARES) Critical Design Review(CDR) was successfully closed out at the endof November.

The Phase-B contract for the PortablePulmonary Function System was signed inDecember.

Testing of the first two flight units of the MELFI–80 degC freezer at KSC has beensuccessfully concluded. In December, flightunit 2 was accepted by ESA and JAXA andformally transferred from JAXA to NASA. Theflight unit 3 activities are on hold pendingresolution of the Brayton Machine problem.The Portable GloveBox development contractwas signed in October and the CDRcompleted in December. Both the training- andflight-model deliveries are on schedule forlaunch with ATV-1.

The European Modular Cultivation Systemflight model and ground-support equipmentwere shipped to KSC, where the flight model’sintegration into EXPRESS and verificationtesting were completed by end-November.The 38th ESA Parabolic Flight Campaign,involving 13 experiments, was successfullyperformed from 18-29 October, and the 39thESA campaign, with 12 experiments, isplanned for 14-25 March 2005.

The Maxus-6 sounding-rocket flight, carryingeight experiments, was successfully launchedon 22 November. Contracts for Texus-42 andMini-Texus EML-1 were signed in December,

and the Maxus-7 Phase-C/D contract is readyfor signature. Maser-10 development isprogressing on schedule for a launch in mid-April 2005.

FOTON-M2 payload development has beencompleted, and the ESA payload complementfor FOTON-M3 was approved in earlyNovember.

The inauguration of a new catapult system atthe ZARM Drop Tower took place in Bremen(D) on 2 December. The new system allows for vertical trajectories (rise and fall) to beperformed, thereby almost doubling the free-fall time.

ISS educationOn 8 December, the DELTA ResearchersSchools project was officially kicked-off with signature of the Memorandum ofUnderstanding between ESA, NASA and theDutch Ministry of Education, Culture andScience.

A very successful ARISS radio contactbetween 350 Irish primary-school pupils andExpedition 10 US astronaut L. Chiao onboardthe ISS, was organised in Ireland inDecember.

In Progress


Programmes


The Education products such as the DVD-1“Newton in Space” and the ISS Education Kit,which is now available in 11 languages, are ingreat demand, with requests coming fromnumerous countries.

The third edition of the SUCCESS contest, for university-student experiments to beperformed onboard the ISS, was launched on1 December.

Commercial activitiesThe commercial agent selected to market theuse of the European facilities and resourcesonboard the ISS to the biotechnology, health,food and nutrition market sectors throughoutEurope, has begun work. The ISSCommercialisation review report has beenfinalised and the Board members approvedthe brand positioning of the Health CareNetwork.

Astronaut activitiesTraining for the Italian Soyuz mission at theGagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre hascontinued for R. Vittori and his back-up R. Thirsk (from the Canadian Space Agency).A Payload Training Introduction for the missionwas given at EAC from 29 November to 1 December, with the four astronauts/cosmonauts Vittori, Krikalev, Turin and Thirskattending. The Experiment Training andBaseline Data Collection Plans for the missionwere agreed in December.

T. Reiter and L. Eyharts received training bothat Johnson Space Center and at the GagarinCentre for a Long-Duration Mission to the ISSby a European astronaut in late-2005/early-2006, and Christer Fuglesang continued histraining for the STS-116 mission.

The COL-CC ground controllers were givenATV and Payload advanced training at EACduring October and November, and an ESATraining Academy course for about 25 ATV-CCstaff was organised from 23 to 25 Novemberin Toulouse (F).

The ATV onboard crew trainer was delivered toEAC in October.

A number of Critical Design Reviews ofequipment and structures have already beenstarted.

The system activities have been progressingaccordingly to the planning agreed at lastJuly’s System Design Review (SDR) Boardmeeting. A meeting took place in December toverify the closure status of the main recoveryactions identified by the SDR. The mainactions at system level are close to beingconcluded, with the exception of three criticalpoints that require further analysis.

The first motor cases for the Zefiro 23 andP80 engines have been analysed after afailure was identified during the Zefirocompression test and some manufacturingdefects were observed in the P80technological model. Specific InvestigationBoards have been put in place andmodifications to the tooling and processes,following an established recovery plan, arebeing implemented and tested beforeresuming full-size-model manufacture andmotor-validation activities.

All ground-segment contracts have beenkicked-off, with the exception of somesubcontracts for the control bench. Work onthe Vega site in Kourou began in October andthe first activities have started at the formerELA1 complex, which will be refurbished tobecome the Vega Launch Zone. The first twoindustrial Ground Segment Preliminary DesignReviews (mechanical and civil engineering)began in December. r

AlphaBus

The Preliminary Design Review (PDR) inDecember marked the conclusion of theAlphaBus preparatory phase. In parallel, theprime contractors Astrium (F) and Alcatel (F)submitted the AlphaBus main-development-phase (Phase-C/D) proposal.

The cooperating Agencies ESA and CNESevaluated the proposal jointly, and subsequentnegotiations with Industry resulted in a soundtechnical and contractual baseline also takinginto account the recommendations of the PDR.

As a first step thereafter, an approval cyclehas been commenced with the relevant bodiesof ESA and CNES for the placement of aPhase-C0 contract, to provide a bridging forindustrial system activities until the placementof the full Phase-C/D contract.

Within ESA, a revised ARTES-8 ProgrammeDeclaration has been approved, taking intoaccount the separate development cycles ofAlphaBus and a future AlphaSat.

The AlphaBus Phase-C/D equipment-selectionprocess is nearing completion andconsolidates the industrial consortium as wellas the repartition of industrial work betweenthe Participating States. Besides the ESAcontribution, CNES is providing furthernational funding for the AlphaBus programme,as agreed under the terms of cooperationbetween the two Agencies. Approval for the fullAlphaBus Phase-C/D by both Agencies isanticipated in the first quarter of 2005.

Vega

All main-development subcontracts for theVega launch vehicle have been signed by ELV(I), the Prime Contractor, with the exception ofthe thrust-vector control activities contract withSabca, signature of which is planned for end-January 2005.


www.esa.intesa bulletin 121 - february 2005

News

In Brief

The latest version of Ariane-5,designed to carry payloads of upto 10 tonnes to geostationarytransfer orbit, successfullycompleted its qualification flight on12 February. After a perfect lift-offfrom Europe’s Spaceport in FrenchGuiana, at 18:03 local time (22:03CET), the launcher released itspayload into the predicted transferorbit.

This success paves the way forthe commercial introduction of this‘Ariane-5 ECA’, which is due toreplace the current configuration ofAriane-5G ‘Generic’. Starting fromthe second flight scheduled formid-2005, Ariane-5 ECA willbecome the new Europeanworkhorse for lifting heavypayloads to geostationary orbitand beyond.

The Ariane-5 ECA featuresupgraded twin solid boosters, eachloaded with an extra 2.43 tonnesof propellant, increasing theircombined thrust on lift-off by atotal of 60 tonnes. The cryogenicmain stage has also beenupgraded to carry 15 tonnes ofadditional propellant and ispowered by a new Vulcain 2engine, derived from Vulcain 1,which provides 20% more thrust.The Ariane-5 ECA also introducesa new high-performance cryogenicupper stage.

On this flight, the Ariane-5 ECAlauncher carried three payloads.The first, released 26 minutes intoflight, was XTAR-EUR, a 3600-kgcommercial X-band commun-ication satellite flown on behalf ofXTAR LLC. This will subsequentlyuse its onboard propulsion system

to achieve circular orbit. After an initial period of in-orbit testing, it will bedeployed to provide secure communications to government customers.

Next released, 31 minutes after lift-off, the Sloshsat Facility for LiquidExperimentation and Verification in Orbit (FLEVO) is a 129-kg satellitedeveloped for ESA by the Dutch National Aerospace Laboratory (NRL).It will investigate fluid physics in microgravity to understand how pro-pellant-tank sloshing affects spacecraft control. Its mission is planned tolast 10 days.

The third passenger, Maqsat B2, will remain attached to the launcher'supper stage. This 3500-kg instrumented model was designed to simulatethe dynamic behaviour of a commercial satellite inside the Ariane-5payload fairing. An autonomous telemetry system transmitted data on thepayload environment during all the flight phases, from lift-off to in-orbitinjection. Fitted with a set of cameras, Maqsat B2 also provided dramaticonboard views of several key flight phases, including separation of thesolid boosters and jettisoning of the Sylda upper-half payload. r

80

Successful lift-off for Ariane 5 ECA Flight 164 on 12 February 2005

Ariane-5 handles the heavy stuff

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Have you ever wondered what it feels like to be amember of the ESA Astronaut Corps? Here isyour chance:You can sign up for a two-dayastronaut training course at the EuropeanAstronaut Centre EAC – complete with a dive inthe EAC’s pool, a twirl on the aero-trainer and achat with real astronauts. Markus Landgraf,scientist and mission analyst at ESOC inDarmstadt, tried it out. Here is his report:

The training is organised by ProToura, anincentive firm contracted by ESA in theframework of its ISS Commercialisation activities.I took part in the course in order to learn moreabout the requirements of mission design andoperations of missions involving humans.

On our first day all eight participants were welcomed by the ProTouraand EAC team and got our blue training suits. Before the real trainingbegan, we were led to the DLR medical institute where they checked that we were fit to participate in the training. A session in a low-pressurechamber, followed by a demonstration of the effects of hypoxia, a lack ofoxygen in the human brain, showed us what it means to live and work ina space environment. In addition to the testing activities, the DLR teamprovided insight into the physical criteria for astronaut recruitment.

A very exciting aspect of the training course was ESA astronaut ReinholdEwald telling us about his mission to the Mir space station in 1997. Hismission was dominated by medical research experiments on the effects ofmicrogravity on the human body. The crew on board the Station needs abroad background in natural sciences and engineering in order to performall experiments from a wide variety of disciplines. I learned that operating amanned space vehicle is quite similar to unmanned vehicles, only themission and spacecraft design are much more driven by safety.

I was especially interested in how the experiments are performed aboardthe Space Station. As I had hoped, the actual payload instructors – thepeople who also prepare the astronauts for their missions – trained us. Dueto the large number of possibilities for payload-specialised training, we hadto pick one experiment facility on which we would like to be trained. I chosethe European Physiology Modules (EPM), one of the International StandardPayload Racks (ISPR) to be launched on Columbus at the end of 2006.Theexperiments can be performed independently on the Station, but the plan isthat astronauts will interact with the Principal Investigators, located in theColumbus control centre. We trained on a variety of experiments in humanphysiology: the recording of an electro-myogramme, a 24-hour bloodpressure monitoring experiment and the space rating of a commercialheart-rate monitor. In general, the experiments are set up very similar to a


In Brief

Become an astronaut for two days

‘Space trainee’ Markus Landgraf

A session in the EAC training pool ispart of the two-day astronaut trainingcourse

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News

laboratory on the ground, except that the procedures during themeasurements are more controlled and documented.

Physical fitness is part of every astronaut training. We spent the morning of the second day in the physical fitness facility in EAC. Thetraining comprised walking on a treadmill, rowing, cycling, and a session in the aero-trainer, a device which allows the human body to berotated in all directions. With fresh minds, we turned to the Columbus mock-up located in the EAC training hall and trained on the emergencyhatch-closing procedure, which is important in the case of fire in themodule.

In the late afternoon we prepared for an extra-vehicular activity (EVA) inthe EAC neutral buoyancy facility, a large indoor pool with a submergedmock-up of the Columbus module. Here, the astronauts are prepared formore elaborate EVA training at NASA/Johnson Space Center in Houston

or the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre near Moscow. Because we allhad different backgrounds in diving, everyone took his or her time to getacquainted with the equipment. Holding a PADI open water divercertificate, I was allowed to observe the EAC team up close as theydemonstrated one of the many training procedures.

At the end Reinhold Ewald gave us our ESA astronaut traineecertificates. The team from EAC and ProToura have put together a veryexciting and authentic experience. Thanks to this two-day course I nowhave a really good insight into what it takes to do research in such anextraordinary laboratory like the ISS.

For more information see www.protoura.com. A two-day training sessioncosts 2950 Euro. The sessions are planned to take place three to fourtimes a year – depending, of course, on the training times of the real ESAastronauts. r

Closer ties between ESA and Russia

ESA Director General, Jean-Jacques Dordain and the Head ofthe Russian Federal Space Agency, Anatoly Perminov, signedan agreement for long-term cooperation and partnership in thedevelopment, implementation and use of launchers in Moscowin January.

This agreement is part of the general Agreement between ESAand the Russian Federation for Cooperation and Partnership inthe Exploration and Use of Outer Space for Peaceful Purposes,and will strengthen cooperation between ESA and Russia.

The ESA-Russian partnership is based on two main pillars:the exploitation of the Russian Soyuz launcher from Europe’sSpaceport in French Guiana, and cooperation without exchangeof funds on research and development in preparation for futurelaunchers.

The programme ‘Soyuz at Europe’s Spaceport’ covers theconstruction of the Soyuz launch facilities in French Guiana andthe adaptations that Soyuz will need to enable it to be launchedfrom there. Work to prepare the Spaceport for Soyuz is alreadyunderway, with the first launch scheduled for 2007.

The agreement will also allow work to begin on the secondpillar: preparation activities for the development of future spacetransport systems. Europe and the Russian Federation willcollaborate in developing the technology needed for futurelaunchers. Russian and European engineers will work togetherto develop reusable liquid engines, reusable liquid-stages andexperimental vehicles. ESA’s aim is to have a new-generationlauncher ready by 2020. r

The European spaceport is getting ready for the Soyuz launcher. (Artist’simpression, D. Ducros)

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With the opening of a new monitoring station in December, Ireland isnow part of Europe’s first satellite navigation system. EGNOS, whichstands for European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service, is asatellite navigation network currently being built all over Europe toprovide a highly accurate signal for civil aviation. By the end of the yearthis network will enable everyone with an EGNOS receiver to pinpointtheir position more accurately than with GPS.

The new EGNOS facility, called a Ranging and Integrity MonitoringStation (RIMS), is located at the airport of Cork on the grounds of theIrish Aviation Authority (IAA). This RIMS provides coverage for all ofIreland and a large window into the Atlantic region, one of the mostheavily populated aviation routes.

EGNOS is Europe’s first step into satellite navigation. Based on thecorrection of Global Positioning System (GPS) signals, it offers higheraccuracy, integrity and continuity of services. To achieve this, a networkof ground elements is needed, consisting of RIMS (34 like the one inIreland), Master Control Centres to process the data delivered by theRIMS, and uplink stations that send the signal to three geostationarysatellites. These will then relay it back to the user on the ground. r

This result has been obtained by a international team of scientists led byDr Mikhail Revnivtsev (Space Research Institute, Moscow, Russia, andMax Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Garching, Germany). AsRevnivtsev explains, "About 350 years ago, the region around Sgr A*was literally swamped in a tide of gamma rays."

This gamma-ray radiation is a direct consequence of Sgr A’s past activity,in which gas and matter trapped by the hole’s gravity were crushed andheated until they radiated X-rays and gamma rays, just beforedisappearing below the 'event horizon' – the point of no return fromwhich even light cannot escape.

The team were able to unveil the history of Sgr A* thanks to a cloud ofmolecular hydrogen gas, called Sgr B2 and located about 350 light-yearsaway from it, which acts as a living record of the black hole's hectic past.Because of its distance from the black hole, Sgr B2 is only now beingexposed to the gamma rays emitted by Sgr A* 350 years ago, during oneof its ‘high’ states. This powerful radiation is absorbed and then re-emitted by the gas in Sgr B2, but this process leaves behind anunmistakable signature.


In Brief

Don’t get lost in Limerick

Integral rolls back history of Milky Way’s super-massive black hole

The EGNOS facility at Cork airport in Ireland

The centre of our galaxy has been known for years to host a black hole,a 'super-massive' yet very quiet one. New observations with Integral,ESA's gamma-ray observatory, have now revealed that 350 years agothe black hole was much more active, releasing a million times moreenergy than at present. Scientists expect that it will become active againin the future.

Most galaxies harbour a super-massive black hole in their centre,weighing a million or even a thousand million times more than our Sun.The black hole in our galaxy, the Milky Way, is called Sgr A* (standing for'Sagittarius A star') due to its position in the southern constellationSagittarius, 'the archer'.

In spite of its enormous mass of more than a million suns, Sgr A*appears today as a quiet and harmless black hole. However, a newinvestigation with ESA's gamma-ray observatory Integral has revealedthat in the past Sgr A* has been much more active. Data clearly showthat it interacted violently with its surroundings, releasing almost a milliontimes as much energy as it does today.

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News

"We are now seeing an echo from a sort of natural mirror near thegalactic centre - the giant cloud Sgr B2 simply reflects gamma raysemitted by Sgr A* in the past," says Revnivtsev. The flash was so powerfulthat the cloud became fluorescent in the X-rays and was even seen withX-ray telescopes before Integral. However, by showing how high-energyradiation is reflected and reprocessed by the cloud, Integral has allowedscientists to reconstruct the hectic past of Sgr A* for the first time.

The high state or ‘activity’ of black holes is closely linked to the way inwhich they grow in size. Super-massive black holes are not born so bigbut, thanks to their tremendous gravitational pull, they grow over time by

sucking up the gas and matter around them. When the matter is finallyswallowed, a burst of X-rays and gamma rays results. The morevoracious a black hole, the stronger is the radiation that erupts from it.

The new Integral discovery solves the mystery of the emission fromsuper-massive but weak black holes, such as Sgr A*. Scientists alreadysuspected that such weak black holes should be numerous in theUniverse, but they were unable to tell how much and which type ofenergy they emit. "Just a few years ago we could only imagine a resultlike this," Revnivtsev says. "But thanks to Integral, we now know it!"

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SMART-1 mission extended

ESA's SMART-1 mission has been extended by one year, pushing back the mission end-datefrom August 2005 to August 2006. ESA's Science Programme Committee (SPC) unanimouslyendorsed the proposed one-year extension on 10 February.

The mission’s extension will provide opportunities to extend the global coverage, compared withthe original six-month mission, and to map both the Moon’s southern and northern hemispheresat high resolution. The new orbit will also be more stable and require less fuel for maintenance.

The extension will also provide the possibility to make detailed studies of areas of interest byperforming stereo measurements for deriving topography, multi-angle observations for studyingthe surface “regolith” texture, and mapping of potential landing sites for future missions. r

SMART-1’s view of a waning Earth These pictures were taken with the AMIE camera on board SMART-1 on 1 and 2 November 2004 when SMART-1 was on course for itslast close approach to Earth, before being captured by the Moon’s gravity in mid-November.

An area of the lunar surface imaged by SMART-1, showing two largecraters, Brianchon and Pascal (ESA/Space-X, Space ExplorationInstitute)

IN BRIEF B121 3/3/05 10:26 AM Page 84

Roberto Vittori will be the nextESA astronaut to fly to theInternational Space Station(ISS), on the 10-day ItalianSoyuz mission, scheduled tobe launched on 15 April fromthe Baikonur Cosmodrome inKazakhstan. The mission iscalled ‘ENEIDE’ and takes itsname from the epic tale writtenby the Latin poet Virgil in the1st Century BC, which tells ofthe journey of Aeneas fromTroy to Italy, and the foundationof Rome.

On this, his second flight to the ISS, Vittori will serve as Flight Engineeron board the Soyuz TMA-6 spacecraft, alongside the Soyuz Commanderand Roskosmos cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev and NASA astronaut JohnPhillips. As Flight Engineer on both the outward and the return journey,

Vittori will take an active role in piloting and docking the spacecraft. Themain objectives of the mission are: for the ESA astronaut to perform afull experimental programme of major scientific interest onboard the ISS;to exchange the station lifeboat, Soyuz TMA-5, for Soyuz TMA-6; and toexchange the current ISS Expedition-10 crew (Leroy Chiao and SalizhanSharipov) for the Expedition-11 crew (Krikalev and Phillips).

ENEIDE, an ESA mission, is co-sponsored by the Italian Ministry ofDefence and the Lazio Region, with the support of Finmeccanica, FILAS and the Rome Chamber of Commerce (CCIAA). Many of theexperiments have been developed by Italian researchers and built byItalian industry and research institutions.

“I am pleased to see this mission taking shape with such a great degreeof international involvement”, says Daniel Sacotte, ESA’s Director ofHuman Spaceflight, Microgravity and Exploration Programmes; “ENEIDE,as with all human spaceflight missions, will benefit many areas of life andfurther expand the experience of the European Astronaut Corps. This willhelp us on the road to further human exploration of our Solar System”.

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In Brief

ESA astronaut to fly to the ISS on Italian Soyuz mission

ESA’s ‘Aurora’ Exploration Programme gets further boost

Roberto Vittori

The countries participating in the Preparatory European SpaceExploration Programme ‘Aurora’ have recently confirmed and increasedtheir contributions for the period 2005-2006. Sweden has now joined theprogramme, and the subscribed envelope has nearly tripled, from theoriginal 14.3 million Euro to around 41.5 million Euro currently. Italy has

also confirmed its interest and ambitions in space exploration by furtherincreasing its participation. The United Kingdom will also contributeadditional money. France, the third-largest contributor to the programme,is followed by Belgium, Spain and The Netherlands. Other participantsare Austria, Switzerland and Portugal. Canada, an ESA CooperatingState, has also confirmed an increased contribution.

On 15 December, the ESA Council approved the Agency’s budgets for2005, including that Aurora. These developments enable major industrialactivities to continue and will enable the work on preparing the fullprogramme proposal to move ahead in line with original plans.Invitations to tender for industrial contracts will be issued starting fromFebruary 2005. These include work for the ExoMars and the MarsSample Return missions. Other activities will cover in-orbit assembly,rendezvous and docking, habitation and life-support systems, plus abroad range of technology-development work. Industry will also becalled upon to contribute to the definition of a European SpaceExploration strategy and architecture.

The preparatory phase of the Aurora Exploration Programme will culminatein a full programme proposal, which will be submitted to the next ESACouncil Meeting at Ministerial Level, scheduled for December 2005.

IN BRIEF B121 3/3/05 10:26 AM Page 85


News

A further step forward for Galileo

Heads of space agencies meet in Montreal

The Galileo project is now well and truly taking shape, with the signingon 21 December of a second contract concerning the In-Orbit Validation(IOV) phase, following that signed in July 2003 for two test satellites.The new 150 million Euro contract between ESA and Galileo Industriesrepresents a first stage towards signing an approximately 950 millionEuro contract covering the overall IOV phase.

The Heads of space agencies from the United States, Russia, Japan,Europe and Canada met in Montreal, Canada, on 26 January to reviewand further advance International Space Station (ISS) cooperation. Atthis meeting, the Heads of Agency reviewed the status of ongoing ISSoperations and NASA’s plans for the Space Shuttle’s return to flight. Theyendorsed the ISS configuration approved by the Multilateral CoordinationBoard. The Partners also reaffirmed their agencies’ commitment to meettheir ISS obligations and to complete the Station’s assembly by the endof the decade, and to use and further evolve ISS in a manner that meetstheir research and exploration objectives.

Of particular interest to the Partners is the increased use of ISS andearly opportunities for an enhanced crew of greater than three after theShuttle returns to flight. ISS transportation needs will be met by a mix of support vehicles from across the Partnership. Planning includessupport by Russian Soyuz spacecraft, the American Space Shuttle, theautomated logistics re-supply capabilities provided by Russian Progressvehicles, the ATV and HTV spacecraft to be provided by Europe andJapan, respectively, as well as the capabilities from potential futurecommercial providers.

The Heads of Agency reaffirmed their commitment to continue theunprecedented international cooperation that has characterised the ISSProgramme to date. This cooperation has enabled the Partnership tosafely maintain a human presence in orbit and keep the ISS in aproductive state of operations and utilisation, including the continued useof Canadarm2, during the current hiatus in Space Shuttle flights.

The ISS Heads of Agency agreed to meet again in autumn 2005. r

The contract provides the basis and the technical activitiesnecessary for in-orbit validation of the Galileo system. It givespreliminary authorisation to proceed with the whole of this work, over a six-month period. This work notably concerns the management of the programme and the choice of engineering systems and technical support required to maintainthe overall credibility of the scheduling and ensure systemcoherence.

"This marks a further step forward for Galileo", says GiuseppeViriglio, Director of EU and Industrial Programmes at theAgency. "In line with the recent EU Transport Council green lightfor final deployment of the constellation, ESA is securing thefoundations for this unique satellite locating and positioningsystem."

Galileo is a joint initiative of the European Space Agency andthe European Union. It will be the first-ever global satellite-navigationsystem designed for civilian needs that delivers guaranteed continuity ofservices, unlike the American GPS. The two systems will nevertheless becompatible and interoperable. r

IN BRIEF B121 3/3/05 10:26 AM Page 86

Publications


ESA Newletters

ON STATION NUMBER 18 (NOVEMBER 2004)NEWSLETTER OF ESA’s DIRECTORATE OFHUMAN SPACEFLIGHT WILSON A. (ED.)NO CHARGE

ECSL NEWS NO. 28 (DECEMBER 2004)NEWSLETTER OF THE EUROPEAN CENTREFOR SPACE LAWMARCHINI A. & DANESY D. (EDS.)NO CHARGE

ECSL NEWS NO. 29 (FEBRUARY 2005)NEWSLETTER OF THE EUROPEAN CENTREFOR SPACE LAW MARCHINI A. & DANESY D. (EDS.)NO CHARGE

PublicationsThe documents listed here have

been issued since the last

publications announcement in the

ESA Bulletin. Requests for copies

should be made in accordance with

the Table and Order Form inside the

back cover

EDUNEWS NO. 6 (JULY 2004)NEWSLETTER OF ESA’s EDUCATION OFFICE WARMBEIN B. (ED.)NO CHARGE

CONNECT NO. 03/04 (DECEMBER 2004)NEWSLETTER OF ESA’s TELECOM-MUNICATIONS DEPARTMENTMENNING N. & BATTRICK B. (EDS.)NO CHARGE

PUBLICATIONS-B-121 4/19/05 10:16 AM Page 88


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