SSA: High-level system layout (click for large size)

ESA will obtain input from numerous SSA stakeholders, including the EU Council, the EC and the European Defence Agency before finalising the high-level system design.

For all three Segments - SST, SWE and NEO - the system design work will encompass the sensors, data centres, radars, ground and space-based telescopes as well as the communications between the various elements of the system. The aim is to create a seamless system that can deliver data in real time to a wide range of commercial customers and government users.

In general, the overall SSA system will include:

• Sensors - located on the ground and in space
• Data centres (one per Segment) - to receive and correlate sensor data
• Management system (including a dedicated data centre) - to conduct overall system control and data distribution
• Service centres (one per Segment) - to deliver data products, warnings and alerts to SSA customers

While the system will be operated by ESA, SSA will only provide services and products to customers according to a well-defined set of rules, referred to as the governance and data policies.

Governance, data and security policies

The purpose of this activity is to elaborate and propose a governance model and to define the data and security policies of the SSA system.

Defining customer requirements and agreeing to a governance and data policy will involve consultations with European policymakers, national governments and EU institutions as well as with participating ESA Member States. ESA's SSA programme is the first European space initiative to consider aspects of joint military and civil use (dual-use) from the outset.

Under SSA, ESA is gathering civil user requirements and is designing the technical architecture of the European SSA capability, while the European Defence Agency is drafting military requirements.

International cooperation and standardisation

ESA's existing international cooperative efforts in the areas of space and debris surveillance, space weather and NEO science will be further developed under SSA. In particular, enhancing the Agency's long-standing cooperation with the USA will be a key component of the programme's development. In the future, cooperation with other space-faring nations will be actively sought.

Organisations concerned with developing mitigation guidelines & standards

At the technical and commercial level, cooperation will be enhanced though the programme's use of widely accepted engineering standards such as International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), European Cooperation for Space Standardisation (ESS) and the Interagency Operations Advisory Group (IOAG).

At the scientific and policy level, SSA will boost ESA's long-time engagement with the (ESA-organised) quadrennial European Conferences on Space Debris, the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR), the 11-nation Inter-Agency Debris Coordination Committee (IADC), UNCOPUOS, and the International Astronautical Federation (IAF).

Furthermore, the SSA Space Weather Segment will work together with the International Solar Energy Society (ISES), the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and other organisations to support the development and use of space weather service provision standards.

Finally, SSA will contribute to Europe's traditional support for peaceful uses of outer space through multilateral venues such as the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS).