The future is just around the corner!ESA's Advanced Mission Concepts team ensures that the Agency will be ready to operate future missions, ranging from small missions such as cubesats to human exploration missions to the Moon and Mars. The team provides operations-related systems engineering services to all types of missions. In addition, they conduct research into concepts and technologies that are not yet in use in the field of mission operations but that could make mission operations 'future ready' and cost-effective, thereby adding value and reducing risk.

Mature innovative technologies for mission operations are functionally and economically instrumental for flying future missions. Since 2001, ESA's Advanced Operations Technology Group has aimed to facilitate the infusion of advanced technology into the service of those flying missions at ESA and at European national agencies and industry.

The Advanced Operations Technologies Group at ESOC has filed five patents since 2009 in the areas of housekeeping data mining and compression. This page gives a brief oversight of each invention.

Following a technology investigation and feasibility analysis, specific projects are being selected to validate enabling technologies to support innovative operations concepts. Operational validation is usually performed across more than one mission and for several months. The output of a project includes documentation, architecture, software and operational assessment. In specific cases it can be a stand-alone product.

Planning & Scheduling Projects

Monitoring & Diagnosis Projects

Compression Projects