No abstract

The ESA Tracking Stations Network (ESTRACK) supports the Agency's and 3rd party spacecraft, during both critical and routine mission phases. In order to ensure the required continuous and reliable communication capability, a set of ground stations are placed at the Australian, American and European longitudes. In addition, an ESA terminal is hosted at Malindi, Kenya. As from 1968 this ground stations network has been augmented as mandated by mission requirements, whilst maintaining a general-purpose character to the maximum extent possible. The latter ensures integrity of the network, common interfaces to control centers, efficient spare holding capabilities, and thus its cost efficient operations and maintenance. After having developed and operated a European network supporting low and near Earth spacecraft (e.g. Kiruna, Redu, Kourou), in the last years ESA focus has been put on the sustaining and development of a LEOP infrastructure (Kourou, Malindi and New-Norcia) and deep-space infrastructure (located in Australia, Spain and Argentina). At the same time, ESA has developed a partnership with cooperative agreements and commercial suppliers complementing the ESA capabilities for the support of critical and routine operations in the earh-Earth domain. This paper focuses on the strategic evolution of ESTRACK, ensuring that such strategic asset for Europe will be able to support the ESA future missions roadmap.

The characterisation of the space to ground communications links and associated margins is deemed fundamental for the dimensioning of the TT&C system and the definition of the operational concept of any space mission. The ESA Link Budget Tool is the central application used at the European Space Operations Centre of ESA (ESOC) for the assessment of the radiofrequency space links between a given spacecraft and the supporting ground stations. The application is currently implemented in MS Excel, using Visual Basic macros for certain computations. The growing complexity of user requirements and a continuous increase of missions data have triggered the need of a software evolution. The aim of the new application is to replace the existing Link Budget Tool, keeping the validated algorithms and reference data, enhancing the existing capabilities and providing new improved functionalities to satisfy the user needs. The development detailed throughout this paper encompasses new features and operating modes, together with improved general capabilities and additional interfaces with other operational systems. The ultimate goal of this new application is to serve as reference tool for all ESOC link budget calculations during the different projects phases, including preliminary studies and feasibility analysis, system design and, ultimately, operations.