The Hermes/Voyager mission operations concept

Abstract

We describe a shared mission operations concept planned for use in support of the Hermes Global Orbiter mission, a proposed Discovery mission to study the planet Mercury. Voyager, a currently flying interplanetary mission, and Hermes are planning to enter into shared mission operations, a relationship which will permit a new low-cost approach to deep space flight operations. Modifications made to the Voyager Mission Operations System plus incremental staffing increases will enable shared mission operations and allow Hermes to avoid the typically high costs associated with development and staffing of a separate mission operations system. We show that shared mission operations will provide reliable and robust operations for both Hermes and Voyager, and will allow Hermes to benefit from the depth of the Voyager experience. This shared mission operations approach is innovative, and will demonstrate a management and operations approach not used before for simultaneous support of scientifically unrelated missions.