An Introduction to Robustness in Satellite Operations

There are more satellites orbiting the planet now than ever before and the number is increasing daily. In all of these cases we must try to ensure that our Spacefaring vehicles as well as the associated ground control systems are as reliable and robust as possible. Satellite operations and the associated ground system of a space project need to be extremely reliable due to the high cost and investment in such projects but also because once we launch and deploy a satellite into space we have nearly zero possibility to change update or fix anything on-board the spacecraft except software. There is a reciprocal however since achieving the high reliability also incurs extra high costs in itself but without this investment in system reliability it wouldn’t be worth deploying the space vehicle only for it to fail before the end of its intended or desired lifetime. Not only must we invest time and money in achieving the most reliable spacefaring vehicles but we must also invest in the systems and people which are made responsible for the vehicle’s monitoring and control from the ground here on Earth. We can and must achieve robustness in our systems and processes for the whole mission in order that we have the best chance to achieve the mission objectives and that our high investment pays off by maintaining the reliability of success for the projected and expected mission duration. This short book attempts to highlight some of the areas in satellite operations missions where we should take great care and introduce processes and mechanisms to increase the robustness of the operations over the entire mission its people and its components.