The virtual mission approach: Empowering earth and space science missions
Elaine Hansen · AIP conference proceedings · 1993
Future Earth and Space Science missions will address increasingly broad and complex scientific issues. To accomplish this task, we will need to acquire and coordinate data sets from a number of different instrumetns, to make coordinated observations of a given phenomenon, and to coordinate the operation of the many individual instruments making these observations. These instruments will need to be used together as a single ‘‘Virtual Mission.’’ This coordinated approach is complicated in that these scientific instruments will generally be on different platforms, in different orbits, from different control centers, at different institutions, and report to different user groups.Before this Virtual Mission approach can be implemented, techniques need to be developed to enable separate instruments to work together harmoniously, to execute observing sequences in a synchronized manner, and to be managed by the Virtual Mission authority during times of these coordinated activities. Enabling technologies include object‐oriented designed approaches, extended operations management concepts and distributed computing techniques.Once these technologies are developed and the Virtual Mission concept is available, we believe the concept will provide NASA’s Science Program with a new, ‘‘go‐as‐you‐pay,’’ flexible, and resilient way of accomplishing its science observing program. The concept will foster the use of smaller and lower cost satellites. It will enable the fleet of scientific satellites to evolve in directions that best meet prevailing science needs. It will empower scientists by enabling them to mix and match various combinations of in‐space, ground, and suborbital instruments − combinations which can be called up quickly in response to new events or discoveries. And, it will enable small groups such as universities, Space Grant colleges, and small businesses to participate significantly in the program by developing small components of this evolving scientific fleet.