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ESAW 2017
Architecting a massive satellite constellation ground system
Jun-2017
© GMV, 2017
HIGHLIGHTS
Jun-2017 Page 2ESAW 2017 - GMV - Architecting a massive satellite constellation ground system
GMV is developing a Command and Control system for a 1000+ LEO telecom satellite fleet
The system is based on hifly, the GMV suite of COTS for satellite fleet
monitoring and control
hifly will be left largely unmodified, adaptations for: massive fleet support:
– Downsizing
– Fleet HMIs (groups of satellites)
– Massive fleets awareness (fleetDashboard)
© GMV, 2017
HIGHLIGHTS
Jun-2017 Page 3ESAW 2017 - GMV - Architecting a massive satellite constellation ground system
Satellites are ECSS PUS compliant: supported by hifly out-of-the-box
Nominal operations can be fully automated; (known) anomaly recovery
will also be automated as mission evolves
Grouping of satellites is essential: changing an out-of-limits definition for a
set of satellites at the same time…
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HIGHLIGHTS
Jun-2017 Page 4ESAW 2017 - GMV - Architecting a massive satellite constellation ground system
The deployment model is very simple:
– One (redundant) hifly core instance per satellite
– One (redundant) set of fleet tools for the complete fleet
Aimed for real-time operations: the archive is short-term (say 1 month): processed TM is forwarded to engineering for long-term archive
The Command and Control system features many interfaces, particularly for overall orchestration of the fleet operations
© GMV, 2017
Sate
llit
es
BBUs
GMV CC
Manufacturerspacecraftdatabase
TM
TC
Fle
et
TM
TC & AUTOMATION
Spacecraft database
Schedulerflyplan
Scriptingautofly
Procedure
TC kernelhifly
TC
TM kernelhifly+archiva
Short-termTM archive
TM
Events &alarms
Central loggingcentralLog
Processed TM TC info
Data aggregators
Fleet awarenessfleetDashboard
ARCHITECTURE
Activity Events & alarms Aggregated data
OVERALL ORCHESTRATION
Engineering
Long-termTM archive
Jun-2017 Page 5ESAW 2017 - GMV - Architecting a massive satellite constellation ground system
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FLEET AWARENESS – STATUS BOARD
Jun-2017 Page 6ESAW 2017 - GMV - Architecting a massive satellite constellation ground system
Status board: subsetof satellites in the fleet
Panels: data about the subset of satellitesin the status board
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Cards are individualsatellites…
…and can be stacked
FLEET AWARENESS – STATUS BOARD
Jun-2017 Page 7ESAW 2017 - GMV - Architecting a massive satellite constellation ground system
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Cards can be flippedfor further information
FLEET AWARENESS – STATUS BOARD
Jun-2017 Page 8ESAW 2017 - GMV - Architecting a massive satellite constellation ground system
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Cards can be draggedonto the trash bin
FLEET AWARENESS – STATUS BOARD
Jun-2017 Page 9ESAW 2017 - GMV - Architecting a massive satellite constellation ground system
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Acting upon a card deck…
…expands the deck
Cards in the deck canbe sent back to the board
FLEET AWARENESS – STATUS BOARD
Jun-2017 Page 10ESAW 2017 - GMV - Architecting a massive satellite constellation ground system
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Satellites can be addedto the board witha static selector…
… or with a dynamic one(“show satellites in pass”)
FLEET AWARENESS – STATUS BOARD
Jun-2017 Page 11ESAW 2017 - GMV - Architecting a massive satellite constellation ground system
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Spreadsheet panel: satellite and aggregated telemetry
FLEET AWARENESS – PANELS
Jun-2017 Page 12ESAW 2017 - GMV - Architecting a massive satellite constellation ground system
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Scheduler panel: satelliteoperations Gantt chart
FLEET AWARENESS – PANELS
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Events & alarms panel
FLEET AWARENESS – PANELS
Jun-2017 Page 14ESAW 2017 - GMV - Architecting a massive satellite constellation ground system
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CONCLUSIONS
Jun-2017 Page 15ESAW 2017 - GMV - Architecting a massive satellite constellation ground system
With such a massive fleet, the CONOPS shall focus on the fleet rather than individual satellites (each satellite may be dispensable)
Virtualization and robust COTS such as hifly enables massive scaling
Unattended operations: do not bother the human team until a (new) anomaly arises
Effective Dashboard. More than 1000 satellites at a glance
Flexible grouping/filtering/selection. Drill down the fleet to the satellites you want
Lessons learnt still to come!!