The Role of the Instrument Suite Systems Engineer in MMS Fleet Operations

Abstract

The Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission is a major NASA effort to better understand the behavior of Earth's magnetosphere. MMS consists of a cluster of four satellites with many instruments including several high voltage instruments. The operations concept includes the notion of a systems engineer for the Instrument Suite (IS); that is, the collection of instruments in aggregate on each spacecraft and across the fleet. This paper discusses the role of the Instrument Suite Systems Engineer (ISSE) over the course of the mission including the six-month commissioning period, the two-year primary mission, and the ongoing extended mission. Some of the activities the ISSE supports include deployments, initial high voltage operations, maneuvers, operation of the central instrument data processor, and interactions between instruments. The ISSE fills the gap between the Payload Operations Center (POC) and the instrument teams by providing in depth knowledge of the IS and instrument designs and the IS concept of operations put into force by the POC.