Comprehensive Open-architecture Solution for Mission Operations Systems
The Hawaii Space Flight Laboratory (HSFL) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa initiated the development of COSMOS, a system that is designed to primarily support the development and operations of one or more small spacecraft and is particularly suited for organizations with limited development and operations budget, such as universities. COSMOS is currently being expanded into a more generic framework for heterogeneous architectures with various different kinds of nodes (assets). COSMOS is designed to be seamlessly integrated and compatible with multiple different resources (nodal architecture) or nodes such as satellites, unmanned air systems (UASs), ground control stations, computer stations, etc. and it is being expanded to address simulation scenarios with complex nodal architectures where events can be detected and trigger actions. It has been developed in the new paradigm of the network-of-things where any asset can be connected to the system in a plug and play approach making it very generic for the inclusion and removal of assets. When an asset is connected and is COSMOS compatible, all the system can be informed of its presence and receive telemetry that can be processed to take actions. COSMOS is a suite of software (including external modules) that enables the operations team to interface with the spacecraft, ground control network, payload and other customers in order to perform the mission operations functions including mission planning and scheduling; contact operations; data management and analysis; simulations (including the operational testbed); ground network control; payload operations; flight dynamics; and system management. COSMOS is being designed to easily be adapted for new spacecraft or installation in new mission operations centers (MOCs).