ESOC goes to SpaceOps 2006
Engineers and scientists from ESA's Space Operations Centre, as well as other ESA organisations, will participate in this month's SpaceOps 2006 conference, one of the spacecraft operations community's headline biennial events.
The 9th International Conference on Space Operations (SpaceOps) will be held 19-23 June, 2006, in Rome, Italy. The event will be hosted the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and organised by The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).
SpaceOps 2006 will bring together space operators from around the world to discuss the current status and future direction of space operations.
The event theme this year will focus on "Earth, Moon, Mars, and Beyond," and presentations are expected to cover a wide range of future-oriented space activities, including Earth observation, Solar System exploration, planetary surface exploration, deep-space communications and the integration of human and robotic missions.
ESA's Director General J-J. Dordain is among those invited to speak, as well as heads or senior policy makers from other space organisations, including Yannick d'Escatha, president of the French space agency (CNES), Keiji Tachikawa, head of Japan's JAXA, and Sigmar Wittig, head of the German Aerospace Center (DLR).
Aurora, GMES plenary sessions
SpaceOps 2006 will include plenary sessions on key ESA forward-looking projects, including Aurora, the agency's multi-decade programme for exploration of the Solar System and universe, which aims in part to inspire European youth to take a greater interest in science and technology.
GMES, or Global Monitoring for Environment and Security, will also be presented; GMES is the response to the need by Europe for geo-spatial information services. It provides autonomous and independent access to information for policy-makers, particularly in relation to environment and security.
ESOC to highlight cutting-edge software
In addition to chairing many of the conference sessions, specialists from ESOC will also present results from a wide range of recent activities, including flight operations, ground systems architecture development, mission management, advanced technologies for mission design, space communications and flight software.
Additionally, several presentations will highlight cutting-edge ground control software developed at ESOC, including EGOS (ESA Ground Operation Software) and SCOS-2000 (Spacecraft Operating System). SCOS-2000 is ESA's generic mission control system software. Originally developed to support ESA missions, the software is now being promoted as a product and licenses are being granted in the fields of space research and technology.
About SpaceOps
The International Committee on Technical Interchange for Space Mission Operations and Ground Data Systems (the 'SpaceOps Organization,' also known as the SpaceOps Committee) is an international spacecraft operations-oriented association consisting of representatives from most space-faring nations.
SpaceOps was founded in 1990 to foster continuous technical interchange on all aspects of space mission operations and ground data systems, and to promote and maintain an international community of space operations experts.
Currently, eleven national agencies are represented on the SpaceOps Executive Committee, including the Italian, Canadian, French, German, Indian, Japanese, Korean, American and Russian space organisations, as well as ESA and EUMETSAT (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites).
Various academic institutions and industrial companies participate in the SpaceOps Organization as well.
