IMPROVING THE COST-EFFECTIVENESS OF MISSION OPERATIONS SYSTEMS THROUGH INTEGRATION AND REUSE

Operations systems for spacecraft missions have been expensive to impl ement because much of the software for such systems has been rewritten for each new mission. With the trend toward more complex spacecraft a nd more ambitious mission goals, the situation could worsen. At ESOC, the Advanced Systems and Technology Programme (ASTP) is funding a seri es of studies called the Advanced Technology Operations System (ATOS) studies. The aim is to develop the design basis for mission operations systems using advanced technologies such as knowledge-based systems ( KBS). In the first of these studies, ATOS-1, techniques for integratin g heterogeneous advanced applications have been defined and prototyped . Such techniques enable the re-use of separately-developed applicatio ns and allow for the integration of large units of software. Software for spacecraft mission operations systems can be produced more cost ef fectively by making re-use and integration easier. Furthermore, these techniques can be of general application in the software industry.