your guide to esoc

8/13/2019 Your Guide to ESOC

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Your Guide to ESOC.

Where Missions Come Alive.

What is ESOC?

The European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) located on the west side of Darmstadt, is the mainmission control centre for the European Space Agency (ESA), controlling and carefully monitoringunmanned space missions i.e satellites. As a satellite is launched, ESOC take responsibility of thatsatellite. For example, ESOC locate any technical issues regarding satellites that they control andsystematically solve them.

When a satellite is launched in to orbit, ESOC make sure it follows a path that has been preciselycalculated. A team of 80 people work on this in ESOC. The flight dynamicists calculate the exactlaunch time and the precise orbit for the satellite, whether it is supposed to orbit the Earth or orbitthe other planets.

Artists impression of GAIA, one of the satellites ESOC is currently operating


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Personnel in Operation at ESOC:

A team of around 800 people work with ESOC, with approximately 250 permanent staff and 550contractors. In ESOC, mission analysers, engineers, ESA navigators work together to calculate anddetermine orbits of satellites, along with the development and improvement of softwares used onthe satellites. Staff at ESOC travel to different ESA organisations located in different countries towork on different satellites.

Every mission begins with alaunch.

Most satellites for ESOC are launched inthe European Space Port , South Americain French Guiana. After a satellite hasbeen launched, ESOC have direct radiocontact with the satellite located in thebelly of the rocket. We have a number oftracking facilities that we operate whereflight data of the rocket is obtained andwe can observe its ascend.

Tracking Facilities.

ESTRACK, ESA's vast network of ground space-tracking stations, provides links and communicationsbetween orbiting satellites and ESOC. Six of these stations are located in Sweden, Belgium, FrenchGuyana, Australia and Spain.

Beginnings of ESOC.

ESOC was founded by the minister of Research of Federal Republic of Germany, GerhardStoltenberg, on the 8 th September 1967. Its purpose was to provide satellite control for theEuropean Space Research Organisation, which today is known as the European Space Agency(ESA).

ESOC employed ~90 people that had been previously allocated to the European Space DataCentre (ESDAC) where orbit calculations for satellites were made.

By May 1968, the establishment of ESOC, as part of ERSO, was operating its first unmannedmission ESRO-2B.

Mission Discoveries made with the patronage of ESOC.

In 2009, the Herschel satellite discovered a starburst galaxy producing over 2000 solarmasses annually. HFLS3 was born 880 million years after the big bang . According to theoriesof galaxy evolution, galaxies as massive as HFLS3 should not be around so early after the BigBang. Galaxy evolution concepts are now being reconsidered.

The Main Control Room (MCR) at ESOC.

Cluster has gained information about dark regions can be seen during aurorae .Cluster has confirmed that these dark regions are phenomena that can beconsidered as 'anti aurora', which pulls electrons from the ionosphere.


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Artists impression of Rosettaasteroid flybly.

Missions in Operation at ESOC:

Solar and planetary Astronomy and physics Earth observation

Venus Express (Launched November 9th 2005) -

ESA's first mission to explore Venus' and to

understand the atmospheric dynamics.

XMM-Newton (Launched

10th December 1999) is

ESA's X-ray mission to study

black holes and neutron

stars.

Cryosat II (Launched

8th April 2010) -

ESA's satellite to

observe polar ice

and to gain a better

understanding

whether this is due

to global warming.

Mars Express (Launched June 2nd 2003) - ESA'S

first planetary mission to explore the Red Planet.

Mars Express is comprised in to 2 sections: Beagle 2, which is a lander designed to

carry out exobiology and geochemistry

research. The Mars Express Orbiter, which will orbit

the planet, observing its atmosphere and

map the surface of Mars.

Planck (Launched May 14th

2009) is a satellite surveying

the Cosmic Microwave

Background, allowing us to

understand what happened

earlier in the Big Bang.

Rosetta (Launched March 2nd 2004) - ESA's

mission to uncover mysteries of the Solar System

and comets. Rosetta has been in a deep-space

hibernation for 3 years. Image below shows an

artist's impression of Rosetta's asteroid flyby.

Integral (Launched 17th

October 2002) known as the

INTErnational Gamma-Ray

Astrophysics Laboratory is an

Earth-orbiting satellite which

detects high energy radiation

from space. Intergral has had

great success in studying

gamma-ray bursts, the

formation of elements and

finding evidence for black

holes.


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Facts:

Since its founding in 1967, ESOC has operated 60 space missions in Europe. Experts at ESOC have been able to save missions that were thought to be lost, such as

Hipparcos. This satellite was able to achieve its three-year mission to map the stars in theMilky Way, even though it was positioned in the wrong orbit!

Exciting News at ESOC!

On the 19th December 2013, GAIA hada successful lift off in Europe'sSpaceport in Kourou, and is currently onits way to study the origin andevolution of billions of stars in the MilkyWay.

Wake up Rosetta ! Rosettas 3 yearhibernation is about to end. The missionin January 2014 will consist of studyingthe comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

This is a model of XMM Newton, asatellite that ESOC operates. This modelcan be found in ESOC's grounds inDarmstadt!

Image above: The Horse Head Nebula, taken by Herschel, a satellite controlled andmonitored by ESOC.

Contact:

ESA/ESOC Corporate Communications Office

Robert-Bosch-STR. 5

64293 Darmstadt, Germany

Tel: +49-(0)6151-90 2696

[email protected]

Guide produced by Kate Middleton. Student no: 11010533

Want for information on ESOC?Check out the website!

http://www.esa.int/About_Us/ESOC
http://www.esa.int/About_Us/ESOChttp://www.esa.int/About_Us/ESOC


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