Integration of Tactical and Individual Satellite Operations with Global Operation and Control

TECHNOLOGY AREA(S): Space Platforms OBJECTIVE: Develop, integrate, and demonstrate a toolset which would enable seamless integrate of individual and tactical satellite operations centers with a higher level operations center Space Operations Center such as the JSpOC. DESCRIPTION: The Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC) has the function of maintaining near real-time situational awareness of all space assets. Unfortunately, todays Air Force satellites are largely operated from a heterogeneous set of operations centers on isolated networks. Satellite data, both relating to system state of health and that relating to payload ("mission products"), flows from these centers in general using laborious manual processes with limited automation. This construct results in delays in reporting, delays in responding to anomalous conditions, and hinders the ability to obtain real time situational awareness for our space assets. As a method to integrate these individual operations centers, the Air Force is exploring strategies that greatly enhance automation, such as the use of approaches like GMSEC (Reference 1) as an infrastructure for the management of satellite operations data. If successful, this will enable standardization of satellite operations for ground assets through service-oriented architectures. Approaches such as GMSEC have been shown to dramatically reduce complexity, by providing unified mechanisms to expose and manage both control and data products associated with these systems. This can lead to a significant reduction of the operational footprint (through improved prospects for automation), as well as increased timeliness in the gathering and analysis of data. The unification promotes development of tools and decision aids, contributing to a more uniform situational awareness of systems associated with this improved infrastructure. Meanwhile, the JSpOC Mission System (JMS) has been developing a net-centric infrastructure to promote/enable real-time space system awareness using a large number of net-centric command and control and space situational awareness tools. The problem is that to date JMS and GMSEC have been developed independently, with little thought as to their effective integration. Integration of the two systems would allow the real-time flow of satellite events to the JSpOC. Additionally, we would like to further expanding the utility of these approaches. For example, for Operationally Responsive Space (ORS), warfighters expect to ability to directly task space assets in near real time disseminating of mission products from the assets to the theater. While the theoretic possibility of such concepts has been shown in limited demonstrations, the ability to task assets should have the capability to access all necessary information while eliminating inefficiencies that would not scale especially if the demonstrated warfighter tasking systems were to be used operationally. JMS data services can be developed which would enable utilizing near real-time awareness of areas such as terrestrial and space weather, orbital position, and target information. Use of this information in a warfighter tasking system would enable optimization of satellite tasking and avoid loss of data. The objective of this topic is to develop an effective bridge between GMSEC and JMS and to demonstrate this capability via a set of operational use cases. One approach, for example, might involve a set of modules to allow the seamless transfer of data between GMSEC and JMS. It is envisioned that success proposers will work closely with the Air Force in order to leverage existing technologies and to ensure technical efforts are consistent with overall responsive satellite development goals. Proposed concepts should strive for designs that can eventually lead to development of a complete comprehensive system, i.e., scalable to operational settings. PHASE I: Design, develop, and demonstrate a robust set of software modules that would enable seamless transfer of satellite system information between JMS and GMSEC. A proof of concept demonstration with a representative set of use cases is highly desirable. Utilize test results to identify key technical challenges, develop a mitigation strategy, and to develop the Phase II program plan. PHASE II: Utilizing the results of phase 1, develop and demonstrate a more robust system using an approved set of space system scenarios in a relevant environment. The demonstration should achieve the functional and interface specifications of the SMC/AD Enterprise Ground Systems (EGS). PHASE III: The proposed effort would develop satellite system technologies that are applicable to both commercial and military satellites. In particular the technologies would have applicability to NASA which also operates a large number of space assets. REFERENCES: 1. GMSEC home page, NASA/GSFC,http://gmsec.gsfc.nasa.gov/.2. Rico Espindola and Gayla Walden, Aerospace Corp, Developing a Responsive Ground System Enterprise, Aerospace Corp Magazine Summer 2009 Edition.3. DISA Net Centric Enterprise Services,http://www.disa.mil/nces/. KEYWORDS: GMSEC, JSpoC Mission Systems, JMS, Net Centric Space Systems, Satellite Operations, Satellite Tactical Operations, Responsive Space