The MOC is responsible for:

• The overall management of the ExoMars mission starting from the Pre-Launch Phase up to the completion of the Entry, Descent and Landing Phase A at the end of these activities, the responsibility of the Surface Operations Phase tasks will be transferred to the ROCC.

• Managing/scheduling all communications links with the space segment requiring usage of the ESA DSN stations for the entire ExoMars mission, as well as the NASA DSN in case of back-up link activation: ESOC scheduling office will support the negotiation of NASA resources.

New Norcia: ESA's first 35m deep-space station

The MOC consists of the Main Control Room (MCR) supplemented by the Flight Dynamics Room (FDR), Dedicated Control Rooms (DCR's), and Project Support Rooms (PSR's).

During the Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP) and during the Mars approach, orbit injection phase and Descent Module release the Main Control Room will be used for ExoMars mission control.

During the cruise and routine operations phase the mission control will be conducted from an ExoMars Dedicated Control Room.

The control centre is equipped with workstations giving access to the different computer systems used for different tasks of operational data processing.

It will be staffed by:

• Dedicated ExoMars spacecraft operations staff.

• Multi-mission support expertise in spacecraft control, flight dynamics and network control, available on a part time basis for the full mission duration.

Take a virtual tour of ESA's Space Operations Centre:

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The ROCC will be located at ALTEC (Italy) and will be responsible for:

• Supporting the ESOC/MOC during the Interplanetary Cruise Operations Phase and Mars Orbit Phase for the periodic checkouts of the Rover. The ROCC is requested to remotely assess the transmitted data provided by ESOC/MOC. Possible corrective actions will be managed by the ESOC/MOC based on the input provided by ROCC.

• Performing full Rover (including science operations) commanding and control. Rover Module activity planning, command sequencing and commands validation will take place every sol between telemetry downlink to Earth and the next up-link opportunity of telecommands (TCs) to the Rover.

• Data dissemination to the scientific team for mission operation support.

• Post mission data product transfer to ESAC, not required to be performed in line with the Rover mission progress, but as per a different time schedule not impacting the Rover mission operation execution.

The overall functional architecture of the ROCC comprises:

ExoMars rover - phase B1 concept

• Ground Communication Infrastructure
• ROCC Operation Control System
• Special Support Facility
• Mars Terrain Simulator
• Rover Models
• Infrastructure Support

The Geophysical and Environmental Payload Operation Centre (GOC)

GOC will provide the support to the scientific operation of Geophysical and Environmental experiments that will remain on the lander platform after the rover has egressed.

The Science Data Archiving and Dissemination Centre

The Science Data Archiving and Dissemination Centre, located at ESAC, Spain, will provide the long term archive of the scientific data collected during the ExoMars mission.

The NASA relay Orbiter Control Centre (NRO-CC)

The NRO-CC is located in the United States will command and control the Data Relay Orbiter provided by NASA to support the ExoMars communications needs. Any data transfer between ROCC and Rover via the Data Relay will be handled through this NRO Control Centre, via ESOC/MOC acting as data routing.