Fleet-Wise Automatic Spacecraft Operations at Eutelsat

Abstract

The number of spacecrafts composing a large satellite communication fleet poses a challenge with respect to the effectiveness of operations handling maintaining risk minimisation. Operations automation gives a possible answer to this problem, permitting operations' optimisation impacting neither safety nor the number of staff involved.The Eutelsat approach to fleet control foresees a unique Monitoring and Control System (MCS), which has facilitated the association to the MCS of a standard "plug-in" type procedure automation tool.The Procedure Automation for Real-time Operations System (PAROS) can be divided into three environments from an operational point of view. First, the procedure maintenance environment permits the translation of the (pre-existing) manual Flight Control Procedures (FCP) into their corresponding automated procedure scripts (APS) and the maintenance of these latter; second "environment", the execution one is composed of a planning subsystem to load the procedures into a scheduler, and of a real-time executor; third "environment" is the Operational User Interface which permits the monitoring of the system status and the progresses of the automatic execution of the procedures, and to interact with both the system and the procedure.The Eutelsat experience with PAROS has focussed initially on executing nominal repetitive procedures in automatic mode. A number of other procedures have since been automated (e.g. eclipse handling procedures) Beyond the advantage in nominal operations scenarios, a further benefit of fleet-wise automation is to be expected in contingency situations, with the possibility of concentrating human efforts on the anomaly.