Information technology preparations for the Pluto encounter from mission operations to science retrieval

Abstract

The Space Exploration Sector (SES) of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) currently houses the Mission Operations Center (MOC) for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) New Horizons mission. In July 2015, New Horizons encountered Pluto. Prior to this encounter, APL had to prepare for its key role in this historic event by refining a number of its information technology (IT) capabilities. Additional redundancy was built into our infrastructure to ensure diversity. A Remote Mission Operations Center (RMOC) was designed, developed, and installed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to be used in the event of a catastrophic event on the East Coast that would render both the MOC and the Disaster Recovery Control Center (DRCC) unusable. The Emergency Control Center (ECC) at the Goldstone Complex, which serves as the backup to JPL's Deep Space Operations Center (DSOC), was upgraded to support the New Horizons mission. The amount of web traffic in the weeks prior to, during, and in the weeks following the encounter were expected to far exceed the Laboratory's capabilities for handling such traffic. To reduce the risk of web traffic overloading the APL IT security infrastructure and possibly causing a bottleneck in our intrusion detection and intrusion prevention devices, we elected to move our web services for the Pluto encounter data to Akamai. APL modified Internet service provider contracts to allow for burst traffic and established connectivity for regional diversity. APL took cyber preparedness seriously, performing numerous tabletop exercises to prepare response procedures for various cyber events that would minimize the impact on New Horizon operations. The New Horizons Science Team began placing increased demands on APL six months prior to the encounter, holding numerous Operational Readiness Tests. Each team involved in these tests had specific requirements related to space allocations, network configurations, printers, computers, and peripherals that needed to be settled. Enterprise coordination was very important. The many different APL departments worked together, and the Laboratory was ready to host the event well in advance of the encounter. This paper discusses the basic mission architecture, the plan that was developed to support the Pluto encounter, improvements instituted (the network upgrades, addition of the RMOC and ECC, additional redundancy, etc.), scheduling constraints, resolution of unforeseen problems, and lessons learned.