Abstract
Routine operations of a telecommunication satellite fleet are simple. Gyro maintenance procedures (once or twice a year), the earth eclipse seasons in spring and autumn, and the moon occasionally blocking the sun or interfering with the earth sensors add some spice, but otherwise the 2-week station-keeping cycle sets the monotonous pace of a telecom satellite control center.
Even though procedure execution may be automated in a given ground segment, human operators are still needed for monitoring them. Large fleets need an absolute minimum of two operators on shift, often more. Further, routine flight dynamics computations also require engineer assessment and intervention. Finally, humans shall coordinate the satellite monitoring and control (MCS), flight dynamics (FDS), and station monitoring and control (MAC) subsystems.
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Gil, J.C. (2017). Telecom Satellite Fleet Unattended Operations. In: Cruzen, C., Schmidhuber, M., Lee, Y., Kim, B. (eds) Space Operations: Contributions from the Global Community. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51941-8_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51941-8_5
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