Dear Readers,
Journal of Space Operations & Communicator, a quarterly online publication, serves as a forum for those involved in the space operations field to communicate with one another, share ideas and information that improve the way operations are carried out in space. The Journal is a crossdisciplinary scholarly publication designed to advance space communication as a profession and as an academic discipline. The Journal is distributed electronically without charge to users on a global basis. JSOC contains peer-reviewed articles, comments and case notes written by leading scientists, professors, and practitioners in their respective fields of aerospace expertise. The editorial board seeks articles that demonstrate exemplary academic research of emerging trends in space technology and space operations fields.
The editorial board would like to dedicate this issue in the memory of Raymond Harvey, one of the founding members of Space Operations & Support Technical Committee, AIAA, who recently transitioned. Ray promoted SOSTC to NASA and had published back in 2001, in the NASA Technical Server Reports “SATELLITE MISSION OPERATIONS BEST PRACTICES ASSEMBLED BY THE BEST PRACTICES WORKING GROUP SPACE OPERATIONS AND SUPPORT TECHNICAL COMMITTEEAMERICAN INSTITUTE OF AERONAUTICS AND ASTRONAUTICS”, which Ray was the lead. Ray will be sadly missed in American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Ray will be sadly missed in American aerospace industry in general and NASA space technology, specifically, as well. Ray was the Missions Operations Manager for the NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test DART) mission.
NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test, also known as DART, is humanity’s first attempt to change the motion of a non-hazardous asteroid in space by intentionally crashing a spacecraft into it. After impact, ground-based observatories across the globe will turn their eyes to the skies to determine if this planetary defense test was successful. To finalize the spacecraft design, team members and reviewers met at APL in Laurel, Maryland, over the summer to assess its critical elements. During DART's three-day Critical Design Review (CDR) in June, team members shared 30 presentations covering topics such as spacecraft and trajectory design, mission requirements, spacecraft systems, mission assurance, and schedule and costs. The review was presented to a panel of external experts tasked with evaluating the information and assessing its progress for NASA. The team then reconvened at APL in September for the two-day Mission Operations Review. DART team members presented to APL peers independent from the project. Led by APL's Ray Harvey, the MOR focused on mission operations and data processing and analysis. Like the Critical Design Review, the MOR was another important step in assessing team members' work progress and planning for the operations phase of the mission.
Hopefully, you will find this issue informative and worthwhile reading.
Sincerely,
Ronald H. Freeman, PhD
Editor-in-Chief
October 1, 2022 |
