Currently space system operators at ESOC get alerted when certain system parameters exceed pre-set threshold values. These out-of-limit (OOL) alarms are simple in nature, each referring to a single parameter, and may not necessarily offer insight into a system’s overall condition just by themselves. Operators can be repeatedly alerted of the same condition, as currently only basic filtering and prioritization of alarms are available.
Remote (standby) mission operators get alerted to possible problems when the Mission Control System detects such system conditions, using mobile phone messages (SMS). Due to the limited nature of SMS and the lack of contextual information, it can be difficult for operators to quickly determine the relative importance of these notifications. They then have to remotely connect to the mission system using their laptop to investigate the issue.
The main idea behind the AAMS is to improve on this situation and enable advanced remote monitoring of operations by performing a technology push with two approaches:
During the AAMS activity, the main functions of the AAMS product were consolidated to include:
The simultaneous need for a system that is easily extensible to processing data from multiple sources and obeying strict ESOC network security rules led to a modular design with only minimal presence near operational systems.
A software prototype implementing the main identified use cases was built as part of the activity. This is connected to two data sources: an EGS-CC instance in the ESOC DEVLAN to receive simulated spacecraft telemetry, and Twitter. The prototype integrated a Complex Event Processing engine, allowing custom rules to be flexibly defined by end users to perform a variety of operations on the data received. This has turned changes to the notification setup into a configuration process as opposed to a software development or scripting process.
Example rules created generate alarms when detecting:
A mobile app software prototype was built for the Android platform to receive the generated alarms. The major functionality developed included:
You can download the Android application here:
(installation from ‘unknown sources’ has to be enabled on your device)