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启动与航天器的通信，下行数据和发送特定命令。工程师们仔细研究数据，寻找可能表明故障或故障可能在未来几天或几周内发生的异常行为的迹象。虽然这种类型的人/航天器相互作用对于单个航天器是可行的，但对于中等大小的星座来说，监测和控制整个航天器星座很快就变得站不住脚。此外，航天器遥测的细微变化预示着即将发生的设备故障(如太阳能电池板、电池、推进器或姿态控制设备)，工程师甚至经验丰富的专家可能很难甚至不可能检测到。与大多数故障检测和恢复方案一样，越早检测到问题，越早纠正问题。该研究项目旨在通过创建虚拟地面站来实现人/航天器交互的自动化。虚拟地面站将管理空间/地面通信，并使用工业统计过程控制(SPC)来监测航天器遥测和标记可能表明即将发生故障的情况。当地的航天器数学模型将预测SPC算法的预期行为，以进行比较。通过赋予航天器地面控制器SPC和航天器自动监控能力，虚拟地面站将减少对训练有素的工程师的需要，即出席和分析星座中每个航天器的每一次地面站传递，以确保航天器安全有效地运行。这项技术将加强加拿大在航天器操作方面的世界领先地位。

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.