Citizen explorer - A low-cost, distributed and incrementally automated mission operations system

The Colorado Space Grant Consortium (CSGC) has developed a low-cost, distributed and incrementally automated mission operations system. Automation technologies are being applied to support mission operations flexibility, user interaction, beacon assessment, autonomy migration, failure mode and effects analysis, and the use of integrated planning and scheduling capabilities. The application of such technologies becomes critical for low-budget spacecraft missions. Our goal is to implement a system that is not cumbersome, that can be learned quickly, that can automatically monitor the health and status of the spacecraft and respond to any anomalies. Automating components of the operations system will result in more cost-effective operations due to a significant reduction in operations staffing In addition, automation allows us to focus on complex fault handling opportunity management and the demonstration of new technologies.