Systems Engineering Challenges for GSFC Space Science Mission Operations

The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Space Science Mission Operations (SSMO) project currently manages 19 missions for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, within the Planetary, Astrophysics, and Heliophysics Divisions. The mission lifespans range from just a few months to more than 20 years. The WIND spacecraft, the oldest SSMO mission, was launched in 1994. SSMO spacecraft reside in low earth, geosynchronous, highly elliptical, libration point, lunar, heliocentric, and Martian orbits. SSMO spacecraft range in size from 125 kg (Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM)) to over 4000 kg (Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope (Fermi)). The attitude modes include both spin and three-axis stabilized, with varying requirements on pointing accuracy. The spacecraft are operated from control centers at Goddard and off-site control centers; the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and Magnetospheric MultiScale (MMS) mission were built at Goddard. The Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) and Wind are operated out of a multi-mission operations center, which will also host several SSMO-managed cubesats in 2017. This paper focuses on the systems engineering challenges for such a large and varied fleet of spacecraft.