| | |  | The Flight Control Room of the ATV Control Centre (ATV-CC) | |
Procedures
The ATV procedures describe in detail the individual steps to be executed at the ATV-CC.
There are two sets of procedures used by the ATV-CC controllers for real-time conduction of an ATV flight:
- The Flight Control Procedure related to the ATV itself, are used to send commands to the ATV and monitor their proper execution.
- The Ground Control Procedures, as opposed to the Flight Control Procedures, do not deal directly with the ATV. The purpose of these procedures is to manage all the different segments and communications logistics to make the ground stations work as one system.
The ground team uses the Ground Control Procedures to ensure that their ground computers, their consoles, their links to the ground radio stations, to the satellite, the connections to the Artemis satellite control centre, to the Mission Control Centres in Moscow and in Houston, are all working as a system fully operational in real-time.
Multi-elements procedures
| | | ISS Control Room at the Mission Control Centre (MCC-M) in Korolev, near Moscow |
For the joint activities related to the ATV in orbit, specific high level procedures, called Multi Elements Procedures, are developed, to allocate the tasks to be performed to the different centres involved. Every control centre - ATV-CC, CC-M or MCC-H - has its own clearly defined role in a sequential form.
Each centre is responsible for development of its own procedures: the ATV-CC will develop the Flight Control Procedures necessary to perform the tasks allocated to it as part of the Multi Elements Procedures.
For example, the crucial refuelling and the re-boost steps performed by ATV during the attached phase with the ISS are under the control of the Russian segment and the Russian ground controllers in MCC-M.
However, the approach of ATV towards the ISS after separation from Ariane-5 upper stage until the final rendezvous is under the control of the ATV-CC.
| | ISS Flight Control Room at the Mission Control Center (MCC-H) in Houston, Texas | |
Operations Interface Procedures
The Operations Interface Procedures correspond to standard procedures used to exchange information between the different control centres involved in the ATV mission (ATV-CC, MCC-M, MCC-H).
They are developed jointly by all partners and address such aspects as:
- Establishment of a communication session between ATV and ATV-CC using the TDRSS
- Exchange of information between the different control centres to prepare and conduct the ATV mission (timing, information on ISS and ATV status, scheduling of operations, etc...)
- Voice communication between the control centres during the ATV mission, etc...
Last update: 23 July 2008 | |
ATV on Flickr
