European Space Agency

Programmes under Development and Operations

Cluster

Integration of the spacecraft known as 'Phoenix', which relies on spare units from the original Cluster programme, is progressing according to plan. The subsystem and payload units have been delivered and are in the process of being functionally tested at Dornier's (D) premises. The spacecraft will be transported to IABG (D) at the end of March for the environmental test programme. It will then be delivered by mid-1997, ready for a potential launch at the end of the year.

The two options for a complete Cluster recovery mission, called Cluster-II, are still being studied. At the ESA Science Programme Committee's (SPC) November meeting, authorisation was given to put before the Agency's Industrial Policy Committee (IPC) a proposal to procure three new spacecraft based on the original Cluster specifications. These three spacecraft, which together with Phoenix make up Option 1 for Cluster-II, would be ready for launch by mid-2000. Option 2 comprises simpler spacecraft carrying essentially the same payload as Cluster, but capable of being launched more cheaply into a direct polar orbit. The SPC will discuss both options at its February 1997 meeting,

Huygens

Flight-model Probe acceptance testing has continued, in accordance with the programme designed to demonstrate the integrity of the Probe's design and construction. The last of the severe environmental tests acoustic noise and vibration have been completed without mishap, permitting electrical functional testing to continue without delay. A number of specific tests on experiment units, subsystem units and modules have also been carried out, and there have also been specific activities for the exchanging of hardware items.

Currently, the Probe is assembled in the 'entry-module configuration' and is undergoing the first part of the system- level electro/mechanical compatibility testing programme. The EMC testing, which was halted during the Christmas vacation period, has been resumed early in January.

Everything now appears set for a successful Flight Acceptance Review in March, with the launch campaign planned to start at the beginning of April.

XMM

XMM flight-model
Production of an XMM flight-model mirror shell, with a gold- plated mandrel being prepared for nickel electro-forming

The main development phase (Phase-C/D), with Dornier (D) as Prime Contractor, is advancing as planned with the good development of the flight-model units, some of which have already been delivered. Production of the four flight-model Mirror Modules is also progressing according to plan, with deliveries of mirrors of good quality. By the end of 1996, the first Mirror Module had been almost fully integrated, and production of the second Module was proceeding well in parallel.

In order to ensure the maximum scientific return from the XMM mission, it has been decided to implement a so-called 'X-Ray Baffle' on the spacecraft. This will have no impact on the overall production schedule.

Manufacturing and testing of the engineering qualification models of the experiments is still in process. The grating spectrometer and one of the X-ray cameras have been successfully tested with the mirror qualification model in the PANTER facility (D). The mirrors for the optical monitoring telescope have been polished.

The development of the Ground Segment at ESOC in Darmstadt (D) has been progressing according to plan, and definition of the technical interfaces with the Ariane launcher for the planned highly elliptical orbit is almost complete.

Integral

The spacecraft main-development-phase (Phase-C/D) activities were kicked-off in October, with the closure of all points raised during the Preliminary Design Review. Following further internal reviews, successful negotiations and official approval from the Agency's Industrial Policy Committee, the contract with Alenia (I), the Prime Contractor, was signed in Paris on 6 November. The final negotiations and contract signatures with the subcontractors are in process and are expected to be completed in the second quarter of 1997.

The payload instruments are progressing. A joint ESA/CNES task force has conducted a detailed review of the Spectrometer's schedule and its interfaces to the spacecraft development schedule. Workarounds have been identified and better synchronisation has been achieved such that the overall mission plan remains unchanged.

Rosetta

Evaluation of the industrial offers for the Prime Contractorship for Rosetta has been completed and Phase-B is due to start at the beginning of March. The overall system design will then start to be refined and frozen so that procurement specifications for the main sub-contractors can be issued as soon as possible. The Preliminary System Requirements Review will be held by the last quarter of 1997 with the major sub-contractors under contract.

The technical definition of the Orbiter's payload is progressing satisfactorily and will lead to the Experiment Conceptual Design Reviews (ECDRs) to be held between March and May 1997. Final confirmation of the funding of the selected payload by the ESA Member States is expected at the February 1997 meeting of the Agency's Science Programme Committee (SPC).

Due to the uncertainty about the availability of resources, both technical and financial, it has been decided to amalgamate the two Surface Science Packages (SSPs) into one slightly larger Lander which can meet most of the scientific requirements. Due to this late re-definition, the status of the SSP is not as mature as that of the rest of the Orbiter payload. However, a crash-action is underway to define the interfaces sufficiently to start the industrial Phase-B and hold the ECDR in May 1997.

Ground-segment definition is progressing satisfactorily and it has been decided to augment the ESA ground-station complement with a 32 m-dish Deep-Space Terminal in the Southern Hemisphere. This station will also be used for other ESA missions. The Invitation-to-Tender for this new terminal has been issued and the industrial procurement is planned to start in the second half of 1997.

Artemis

XMM flight-model
Artemis structural model during vibration testing at ESTEC

Satellite
The Artemis satellite structural model is now at ESTEC undergoing environmental testing. Acoustic testing has been successfully completed and vibration testing is underway.

The satellite engineering model is fully integrated in the Alenia (I) facility in Rome ready for electrical system testing to start.

Integration of the flight-model satellite has started with installation onto the structure of propulsion and thermal-control equipment. Delivery of other flight equipment is underway and is planned to be completed during the next few months.

Under a Memorandum of Understanding which is being agreed with the Japanese Space Agency (NASDA), Artemis will be launched on the HII-A vehicle and in return Artemis data-relay capacity will be made available to Japanese satellites. As a result of this agreement, the launch of Artemis has been rescheduled for winter 1999/2000.

Ground segment
A review of the design of the ground segment for operating the Artemis satellite has been completed successfully and the full implementation phase has started.

Silex LEO terminal
The Silex LEO terminal has been fully integrated and its environmental testing is underway. Delivery for integration on the French Spot-4 spacecraft is planned for February 1997.

EOPP

Future programmes
The four missions for Phase-A study recommended to the Earth-Observation Programme Board were unanimously endorsed, namely:

Unfortunately, formal approval for the Phase-A mission studies can not be obtained until the necessary subscriptions to the next five-year slice of EOPP have been secured.

Campaigns
Activities are limited to the last three campaigns supported by EOPP, namely EMAC, POLRAD and INDREX. All are now in their data-evaluation phases.

Polar Platform/Envisat

The Polar Platform/Envisat-1 mission is the most challenging ESA has ever undertaken in the field of Earth Observation. It will not only provide continuity for space-acquired ocean, land and ice data from ERS-1 and ERS-2, but will also gather information on atmospheric constituents and Earth-surface features that will be invaluable for environmental research and applications purposes.

The instrument payload is a combination of six ESA-developed instruments (EDIs) and three Announcement of Opportunity Instruments (AOIs).

Envisat-1 is foreseen to be launched in mid-1999 by an Ariane- 5 into a Sun-synchronous, near-polar orbit in which it will circle the Earth some 14 times per day. The mission is expected to provide continuous global data for at least five years.

Envisat-1 system
The Critical Design Reviews (CDRs) of the various Envisat subsystems are proceeding according to plan. In particular, all instrument CDRs and the Flight Operations Segment (FOS) CDR were completed before the end of 1996. The Polar Platform CDR is planned to be held in parallel with the Envisat Mission and System (EMS) CDR, starting in mid- February.

The work of the Data Policy Working Group is progressing and its recommendations are expected early in 1997 regarding, in particular, the conditions of the Announcement of Opportunity for Scientific Data Exploitation and Pilot Projects, and the more general policy for data-product distribution to users.

Significant progress has been achieved in the detailed definition of the data products and corresponding processing algorithms for all of the Envisat instruments. A comprehensive status report was presented to Programme Participant representatives (DOSTAG) at the end of October.

Polar Plafform (PPF)

PFF
Structural model of the Polar Platform (PPF) in the Hydra Test Facility in January 1997

Following the successful execution of the acoustic, shock and modal-survey tests, the Polar Platform structural-model activities were put on hold awaiting availability of the Hydra Test Facility at ESTEC at the end of the year.

The engineering-model (EM) Payload Module started its integration at Matra Marconi Space in Bristol (UK), with the assembly of the EMPayload Equipment Bay (PEB) delivered by DASA/Dornier (D) and the Payload Carrier manufactured by CASA (E). Thereafter, integration of the EM instrument models has started and will continue over the next few months. The MIPAS instrument has already been successfully integrated.

The flight-model PEB is being integrated at DASA/Dornier, where most flight units are already available.

The proto-flight Service Module integration has been completed and acceptance testing is in progress. The next major test, the thermal-balance/thermal-vacuum test, was scheduled to take place in the ESTEC LSS facility in December.

The Ariane-5 Launch Service Agreement (LSA) has been concluded with Arianespace.

Envisat-1 payload
Development of the Envisat payload instruments has been progressing well. The MTSR, MIPAS, SCIAMACHY and GOMOS engineering models have been delivered to the PPF Prime Contractor, Matra Marconi Space in Bristol (UK), for integration with the EMPolar Platform. Delivery of the engineering model of the RA2 instrument was planned for December.

Work is also progressing well on the instrument flight models (FM), for which most of the subsystems and equipment units are in manufacturing and testing.

After a lengthy evaluation and careful screening, the flight- model Charge-Coupled Devices (CCDs) for the MERIS and GOMOS instruments have been selected. In both cases, excellent performances have been secured for these components which are a vital part of these instruments.

Envisat-1 ground segment
The Payload Data Segment (PDS) industrial-contract negotiations have been finalised and the contract was signed on 9 December.

The Flight Operation Segment (FOS) Critical Design Review, which is currently in progress, is aimed at demonstrating the completeness and coherency of the documentation, the interfaces and the corresponding developments. Two development activities are still to be kicked-off in 1997: the development of the FOS Mission Planning System and the Kiruna TTC Station upgrade.

Meteosat Second Generation

The SEVIRI (Scanning Enhanced Visible and Infra-Red Imager) telescope and scan assembly has been re-designed, the telescope has undergone a Preliminary Design Review (PDR), and its engineering-model and mechanical/thermal-model equipment manufacture has been released. The Scan Assembly PDR is now planned for early 1997, with the SEVIRI schedule remaining on a critical path.

The combined contract for MSG-1 and MSG-2/3 between ESA and Aerospatiale was signed in October 1996. This signature was preceded by the ESA and Eumetsat agreement that ESA should act as the procurement agent for MSG-2/3 on behalf of Eumetsat, which is fully financing these two recurrent models.

The launch of MSG-1 remains scheduled for October 2000, with MSG-2 to be launched in 2002 and MSG-3 to go into storage in 2003.

METOP

The METOP Phase-B was successfully completed with the System Requirements Review held in November/December 1996. The definition of the design and implementation of the satellite is fully ready for the start of the main development phase (Phase- C/D).

Payload definition has been finalised, with the selection of the GOME instrument from ERS-2 as the ozone-monitoring instrument on Metop-1 and -2 and the alternative ImS instrument now proposed for flight on Metop-3.

The preparations required within Eumetsat, and ESA approval of the combined EPS/METOP programme, are currently in a final stage. A small number of important issues remain to be resolved, however, before this approval can be realised.

If the ESA Programme is agreed, advance industrial activities could start in the first quarter of 1997, with the full Phase-C/D kick-off anticipated towards the end of the year.

Meteosat

The Meteosat Transition Programme (MTP) spacecraft has been fully integrated and all the major environmental tests completed. The system-validation tests will be performed in early 1997 and then the final performance tests will be carried out in preparation for the flight-readiness review in May. Launch on an Ariane-4 vehicle is anticipated in the July to September time frame. This MTP spacecraft will be the last of the Meteosat Operational Programme (MOP) design to be launched.

Once launched, the MTP spacecraft will be operated by Eumetsat to provide the regular weather pictures over Europe currently being provided by Meteosat-5, with Meteosat-6 as the in-orbit spare. Both of these spacecraft were provided under ESA contracts.

ERS

ERS-2 has continued to meet the routine mission requirements with high availability of all instruments. ERS-1 is now in hibernation after five years of operation and, having exhibited little performance degradation, is serving as a back-up.

Euromir-E

After the highly successful Euromir missions in 1995 and 1996, ESA has now reached an agreement with the Russian partners on additional post-mission activities. This Euromir-E (Extension) programme will involve two Russian cosmonauts aboard Mir providing support for several ESA experiments on the station during the second half of 1997. The planned investigations are based on re-runs of about 15 Euromir 95 experiments exploiting existing ESA hardware on board.


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Right Left Up Home ESA Bulletin Nr. 89.
Published February 1997.
Developed by ESA-ESRIN ID/D.