Design of the framework planning system for ESA’s science missions

GMV has won the contract for the initial study of the Combined science mission planning system within the General Studies Programme (GSP) of the European Space Agency (ESA).

GMV has been awarded the contract “Combined Planning System for Mission and Science Operations” under the ESA General Studies Programme.
The project consists first of a technological study and later of the design and prototyping of the future Mission Planning System framework that will support both ESA Science and Earth Observation Missions.

The need for this study arises from the current complexity in ESA Mission Planning operation for science missions, where several actors are involved and heterogeneous operational tools are used by the different actors. Moreover, the actors implied interact through a number of complex and often man-driven interfaces, which makes the process deeply inefficient.

Although running independently, the different operational planning systems share common functionality in some cases. The main objective of this activity is to identify commonalities across these systems, in order to create an architecture that avoids duplications and simplifies interfaces. In particular, it is an objective of this study to propose a combined Mission Planning System framework to be shared by the different actors.

GMV will first survey the available state-of-the-art mission planning technologies and analyze the currently used planning systems. Based on these results, GMV will design a Mission Planning System framework which will enhance the coordination between the different parties involved and result in a more efficient mission-planning process. Finally, the study will make a proof of concept using a real mission, Euclid, the ESA mission to map the geometry of the dark Universe.