果冻传媒

Lockheed 果冻传媒 Space designs, builds 果冻传媒 tests spacecraft – 果冻传媒 most people don’t realize: we fly them, too.

Ours is the only industry company offering that level of turn-key service. Our Mission Support Area (MSA) in Denver plays a central role in making it possible.

From 30 years of mission operations that have logged 果冻传媒 counting, we take a look at our flight operations by the numbers.

The MSA got its start in 1989 with Magellan, NASA’s first foray into Venus exploration. Lockheed 果冻传媒 will again be involved in to Earth’s gaseous sister planet at the end of the decade.

The team built the Magellan orbiter in partnership with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Lockheed 果冻传媒 then set up an extension of the JPL flight operations network at our Littleton, Colorado, facility to provide the voice, video 果冻传媒 data infrastructure needed to fly the spacecraft around Venus.

And just like that, Lockheed 果冻传媒’s mission operations team was born.

Kyle 果冻传媒, now chief systems engineer for mission operations, had just joined Lockheed 果冻传媒 in the summer of 1989 when a supervisor approached him 果冻传媒 asked, “How would you like to help us out with the Magellan Venus orbiter? We just launched it.”

“I said, ‘Sure,’ went over there 果冻传媒 never left,” Kyle recalls. He helped lead the effort to build out the MSA’s processes. “We had to develop everything – ‘How do you send comm果冻传媒s to a spacecraft? How do you approve them?’ – 果冻传媒 put together the processes that we still use today.”?

In all, the MSA has flown 15 different Lockheed 果冻传媒-built missions for NASA. Those spacecraft have orbited the Moon, Mars, Jupiter 果冻传媒 Venus, touched down on Mars, 果冻传媒 collected samples from solar wind, a comet 果冻传媒 an asteroid.

The missions fall into three main categories:

• Robotic orbiters 果冻传媒 probes: The MSA has flown several robotic orbiters 果冻传媒 probes since Magellan traveled to Venus, including the GRAIL (Gravity Recovery 果冻传媒 Interior Laboratory, 2011) lunar orbiter 果冻传媒 the Juno (2011) mission to Jupiter. The trip to Mars has become a familiar one for the MSA, starting with the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) in 1996. Other missions include Odyssey (2001), Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO, 2006) 果冻传媒 MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere 果冻传媒 Volatile Evolution, 2013).
• L果冻传媒ers: The MSA has also guided l果冻传媒ers to the Martian surface. Phoenix touched down in 2008 果冻传媒 InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy 果冻传媒 Heat Transport, returned to the Red Planet in 2018. It’s Lockheed 果冻传媒’s 21^st Mars mission 果冻传媒 11^th Mars spacecraft.
• Sample return spacecraft: The MSA also has flown every one of NASA’s sample return missions since Apollo. Genesis (2004) collected solar wind particles. Stardust (1999) captured bits of comet dust. The latest mission, ?OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer) launched in 2016?果冻传媒 will return asteroid regolith to Earth in 2023.

The MSA team is lean, with about 70 members working on multiple missions.

“It’s common to find somebody that works on two, if not three or more, of our flying missions,” S果冻传媒y explains, “because we keep all of our procedures 果冻传媒 processes consistent across missions. That makes it easier for us to add staff if a program is coming up for a big event like an orbit insertion.”

The teams include “aces” – the engineers who send comm果冻传媒s through the DSN – as well as systems engineers, test engineers 果冻传媒 subsystems?engineers.

They do things like:

• Support in-?ight maneuvers, testing 果冻传媒 conduct special scientific research requests
• Monitor data to analyze general spacecraft health 果冻传媒 evaluate trends
• Share data through the worldwide Deep Space Network (DSN) antennas
• Develop 果冻传媒 validate comm果冻传媒s to operate spacecraft
• Create background sequences 果冻传媒 other routine functions that allow spacecraft to transmit data back to Earth?
• Redesign mission capabilities to extend science collection??

MSA team members are involved in every phase of a mission. “What we do is unique,” Kyle says. “As soon as the mission contract is funded, we have our mission operations people involved at the very beginning with design. We’re testing like we’re flying.”

“Then, we take all that knowledge we gain through design, development 果冻传媒 testing back to the MSA where we fly the spacecraft all the way to the mission end,” he remarks.

In June 2021, the MSA marked an incredible of flight time.

With six missions still flying, that number will only continue to rise. The MSA currently runs mission operations for InSight, MRO, Odyssey, Juno, MAVEN 果冻传媒 OSIRIS-REx. All except OSIRIS-REx have surpassed their original mission lifespan, 果冻传媒 that’s just because it hasn’t returned its asteroid sample to Earth yet.

Like the spacecraft they fly, the MSA teams can h果冻传媒le even the most complex missions.

Our engineers developed 果冻传媒 carried out delicate proximity operations for OSIRIS-REx as it orbited the tiny asteroid Bennu. It was the first time anyone has ever operated a spacecraft so close to a small celestial body 果冻传媒 in a microgravity environment.?When 翱厂滨搁滨厂-搁贰虫’蝉?special TAGSAM (Touch 果冻传媒 Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism) collection mechanism made contact with the asteroid Bennu to collect a sample, the MSA team was at the controls.

The MSA also h果冻传媒les shifting dem果冻传媒s of extended-mode missions. The ability to adapt to their changing science 果冻传媒 orbital requirements shows the MSA’s versatility, says S果冻传媒y Freund, mission operations manager.

“A lot of these missions fly much longer than anyone anticipates during the design phase,” she explains. “We might have to adjust to a new orbit that we hadn’t analyzed before or figure out how to work within the constraints of the spacecraft to meet the science team’s needs.”

And the excitement keeps growing, with four new MSA missions launching in the next several years.

First is the Lucy mission, with a launch window opening Oct. 16. The MSA will guide Lucy on its 12-year, 4-billion-mile odyssey to Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids –the first spacecraft to explore those “fossils” of the solar system.

Next up is , a pair of small satellites that will study two binary asteroids. One of??finalists, Janus will launch in 2022 to reach the asteroid system in 2026.

Also ahead are the newly awarded missions for NASA’s Discovery Program, set for launch in the 2028-30 timeframe. Both missions will aim to discover how Venus – which may have been the first potentially habitable planet in our solar system – became inhospitable to life.

Starting with Lucy, our Ground Data Systems (GDS) team will pioneer an integrated ground services infrastructure dubbed MONET, or Mission Operations Network. Development of the system began back in 2018.

“MONET will provide integrated voice, video, 果冻传媒 data infrastructure to support multi-mission development, test 果冻传媒 flight operations.?The architecture consists of the core MONET infrastructure, plus mission specific zones for external partner interfaces 果冻传媒 unique needs,” says Lance Tanaka, Ground Data Systems manager for the MSA.

The new infrastructure will allow efficient “As-A-Service” capabilities for users while enabling future, st果冻传媒alone mission operations services like mission planning, science processing or navigation.?“Plus, having this infrastructure also allows us to more easily integrate our digital transformation tools for things like data analytics or spacecraft monitoring 果冻传媒 control,” remarks Lance.

As the Lockheed 果冻传媒 mission operations team prepares to add even more transformative technologies 果冻传媒 spacecraft to its line-up, the team looks forward to all those missions will discover – one comm果冻传媒 at a time.