Virtual Ground Station for Automated Spacecraft Operations

从历史上看，从地面管理和控制航天器一直是一项非常手工的活动。训练有素的合格工程师与航天器进行通信，下行数据并发送特定命令。工程师们仔细研究数据，寻找可能表明故障或可能在未来几天或几周内发生故障的异常行为迹象。虽然这种类型的人/航天器交互对于单个航天器是可行的，但对于中等规模的星座来说，监视和控制整个航天器星座很快就会变得站不住脚。此外，航天器遥测技术的细微变化，表明即将发生的设备故障（如太阳能电池阵列、电池、推进器或姿态控制设备），可能很难或不可能被工程师甚至经验丰富的专家发现。与大多数故障检测和恢复场景一样，越早检测到问题，就能越早纠正问题。

Historically, managing and controlling spacecraft from the ground has been a very manual activity. Highly-trained and qualified engineers initiate communication with the spacecraft, downlink data and send specific commands. Engineers study data carefully, looking for signs of abnormal behaviour that could indicate a failure or that a failure is likely to occur in the next few days or weeks. While this type of human / spacecraft interaction is feasible for single spacecraft, monitoring and controlling an entire constellation of spacecraft quickly becomes untenable for moderately-sized constellations. Further, subtle changes in spacecraft telemetry, indicating impending equipment failures (such as solar arrays, batteries, thrusters or attitude control equipment) may be difficult or impossible to detect by engineers or even seasoned experts. As with most fault detection and recovery scenarios, the sooner an issue is detected, the sooner it can be corrected. This research project aims to automate human / spacecraft interactions by creating a virtual ground station. The virtual ground station would manage space / ground communications and use industrial Statistical Process Control (SPC) to monitor spacecraft telemetry and flag situations that could indicate impending failures. A local spacecraft mathematical model will predict expected behaviour for the SPC algorithms to compare against. By empowering spacecraft ground controllers with SPC and automated spacecraft monitoring capabilities, the virtual ground station would reduce the need for highly-trained engineers to attend and analyze every ground station pass from every spacecraft in a constellation to ensure safe and efficient spacecraft operation. This technology would strengthen Canada's position as a world-leader in spacecraft operations.