ProToS: Automation of Flight Control Procedures for the European Data Relay System

Kurzfassung

The European Data Relay System (EDRS) offers a high-speed communication service between satellites, spacecraft, UAVs, and ground stations, using a relay satellite constella- tion in geostationary orbit, equipped with high-end laser communication terminals (LCTs). As part of the ESA ARTES 7 program, EDRS is realized as a public private partnership with DLR GSOC responsible for the Devolved Payload Control Center (DPCC) of EDRS-A, and the Satellite Control Center (SCC) of EDRS-C, the latter being scheduled for launch in 2018. The EDRS service level agreement foresees continuous payload utilization, up to 200 links per day over the expected lifetime of 15 years, with a targeted service availability of at least 99.6% over 60 days and an order reaction time well below one hour; a task that can hardly be managed in a manual or semi-automated operations concept. All payload and most platform operations for EDRS-C are therefore executed using a procedure automation framework, the GSOC Procedure Tool Suite (ProToS). This paper shall give a conceptional overview of the ProToS execution and automation framework as well as the mission specific configuration for EDRS-C.