Pilot Data Centres
When fully operational, Europe's SSA system will generate large amounts of data each day including orbital debris and satellite locations, solar wind measurements, magnetospheric and ionospheric data and near-earth-object observations.
These data will be updated in real-time by automated scanning and surveillance systems, and will be fed into sophisticated software analysis tools established within a network of technical centres. These will correlate observations together with data provided by other sensors and systems to provide alerting and other SSA services to users.
The SSA centres will house an extensive range of applications, tools and systems to provide SSA services and will be the interface between SSA sensors, telescopes and radars and the SSA service users.
During the 2009-2011 Preparatory Phase, the SSA team will deploy a series of 'pilot' service and data centres. These will support the roll-out of precursor services and will be used as test-beds to validate the choice of key IT technologies for the development of the future operational centres. They will also enable development, testing and validation of the software applications that will ultimately provide SSA data products.
Developments 2009-11
ESA is now working intensively with industrial partners to develop the three SSA Pilot Data Centres, one for each of the three SSA segments. The three segment-specific data centres are:
- SSA-SST Space Surveillance Test and Validation Centre (SSTC), located at ESA/ESAC, Spain
- SWE Service Coordination Centre (SSCC), located in Belgium
- SSA-NEO Small Bodies Data Centre (SBDC), located at ESA/ESRIN, Italy
Further, an SSA Tasking Centre will be located at ESA/ESOC, Germany, where it is co-located with ESA's mission operation teams and systems.
The Pilot Data and Tasking Centre activities are essential for the successful implementation of SSA precursor services during the Preparatory Phase, as well as for testing and validating SSA planning and tasking mechanisms.
The deployment of these centres will require the development and deployment of new computer and telecom infrastructure and new software applications as well as the building of new operational facilities. Altogether, these activities will offer significant business opportunities for European industry in the areas of information and communication technology (ICT) solution providers and software integrators.
Milestones 2009-2011
During the SSA Preparatory Phase, these activities are expected to achieve a number of key milestones. These include:
- Jan - Jun 2010: Initial ICT engineering activities
- Mar - May 2010: Definition of pilot centre requirements
- Jun – Dec 2010: Procurement and deployment of ICT infrastructure
- Oct 2010: Start of precursor services
- Sep 2010 – Dec 2011: Pilot data and tasking centre prototype software development
Last update: 9 December 2012
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