Cost-Effective Space Mission Operations

Anyone who has worked in space mission operations knows that the unexpected is routine. Still, that does not mean that mission operations is an art form. Planning is essential. Metrics are needed to at least estimate costs and workforce. And this book provides support to those who need to plan for or perform mission operations tasks. The book does an excellent job of describing mission operations functions and products. There's a very good section on how to develop a mission operations concept. And there's some good advice on assessing mission operations complexity. While the operations engineers may see operations as the phase in which design errors are finally solved or worked around, we're warned to avoid letting them simply use the spacecraft as an engineering test bed. This text includes valuable reference material on spacecraft navigation and maneuvering, communications architectures, ground systems, and data processing. There's also a good chapter on spacecraft anomalies. After all, the anomalies are probably the aspects of a space mission that will stand out most to the folks in operations. I think one of the best parts of this book may be the appendix that contains mission summaries for fourteen space missions (ACE, COBE, ERBS, FAST, FUSE, GRO, ICE, IMP, IUE, SAMPEX, SOHO, SWAS, TRMM, and XTE). These summaries include a mission statement, launch information, a description of the spacecraft bus, payload, and science instruments, the orbit phases, a description of the ground system, an overview of mission operations, and a schedule. All in all, it is quite a useful book.