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Forward Link
The Russian Space Agency (RSA) Meteor-3M control center, located in Kaliningrad, Russia, will be responsible for transmitting commands to the spacecraft and instrument. The Kaliningrad control center is capable of routing commands to a number of command transmission stations located throughout Russia. During routine operations, commands are transmitted to the spacecraft and SAGE III instrument once every two (2) weeks. However, additional command support is available to make SAGE III operational adjustments and flight software modifications, as required.
The NASA SAGE III operations center at LaRC will develop command loads necessary to operate the instrument and transfer the load information to the RSA Meteor-3M control center via the internet or other electronic medium. Operational timelines, command formats, and detailed operations plans will be documented in a jointly developed Meteor-3M/SAGE III Mission Operations Plan. Meteor 3/TOMS mission operations will continue to be used as the "blueprint" forMeteor-3M/SAGE III operations planning.
Return Link
The return link for the Meteor-3M mission is similar to the scheme used during the Meteor 3/ TOMS mission. For the Meteor-3M / SAGE III mission, identical sets of instrument data will be relayed two times daily to ground stations located in Obnisk, Russia and Wallops Island, Virginia. The GSFC Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) is responsible for data reception, archival of raw data for at least two weeks, data quality monitoring, and will support data transfer to LaRC.
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Upon receipt at WFF, the raw SAGE data will be automatically transferred to SAGE III operations center for Level 0 conversion. Level 0 data will be distributed to the SAGE III Scientific Computer Facility (SCF) and to the EOSDIS LaRC DAAC.
Level 0 data will be automatically checked at the SAGE III operations center to verify that instrument health, safety, and performance parameters are within established operating limits and performance metrics.
SAGE III housekeeping data will be monitored by ground controllers at the RSA Meteor-3M control center in Kaliningrad, Russia. Ground controllers will execute SAGE III provided contingency procedures in the event of a malfunction or limit violation and notify SAGE III operations personnel. The feasibility of transmitting SAGE housekeeping data in real time to the SAGE III operations center at LaRC via the internet is being explored.
Flight Operations
SAGE III flight operations will consist of planning, execution, and analysis activities. Operations are anticipated to be more similar than different for the two identified missions and the potential FOO mission. Operations differences will arise because platform characteristics, mission unique hardware (i.e. the hexapod coarse pointing platform used on the ISS mission), and operational schedules that will vary in order to accommodate mission requirements.
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