Hatrack River Writers Workshop: NASA?

This is topic NASA? in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
http://www.hatrack.com/ubb/writers/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=006231

Posted by skadder (Member # 6757) on :

Anyone know anyone at NASA/related industry who could answer a few basic questions?

Pretty simple stuff like:

1) Where would Mission Control be for a mission like the Cassini mission, e.g. non-manned exploration missions of the solar system? I am talking about the state, town, facility and the precise location--name of building, if you can get it.

2) What would be the title and academic background of the person in charge of the mission be? I mean the person whose job is to have hands-on day-to-day responsibility for the mission. There may be people above him who he reports to, but he's the guy who ensures everything runs smoothly.

[This message has been edited by skadder (edited May 15, 2010).]

Posted by TamesonYip (Member # 9072) on :

I am in Phx right now, but when I get back to Houston I can get those answers for you- like Tuesday night, maybe Wednesday. So, hopefully somebody else can answer faster, but if not, please bump this and I will ask my husband and if he doesn't know I can have him ask a co-worker.

Posted by sjsampson (Member # 8075) on :

I'm not NASA, so someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but...

1) For Cassini - JPL http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/missioncontrol/

quote:
Mission control activities for Cassini are conducted from the Space Flight Operations Facility at JPL, where the project is headquartered.

And if you are bored and interested, the pre-launch press kit:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press_kits/cassini.pdf

John Hopkins APL would be another option: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applied_Physics_Laboratory

2) In terms of flight, Director of Flight/Flight Director.

Engineering, physics, planetary science, or a military background would all work. I'm sure there are others.

Posted by skadder (Member # 6757) on :

Thanks!

Posted by Edward Douglas (Member # 8872) on :

Since your topic was specifically about the Cassini mission I thought I'd mention the European Space Agency's role.

The Cassini-Huygens mission included the Huygens probe which was built by the European Space Agency. When Huygens disengaged from Cassini in 2005 and began its descent onto Saturn's moon Titan mission control was turned over to the European Space Operations Center located on Robert-Bosch-Strasse, Darmstadt, Germany for the duration of the descent.

It's sort of a shared mission.

Hope this helps.

Posted by skadder (Member # 6757) on :

That's interesting...I like the idea of a european connection. Was control of the mission's uplink transferred to ESA prior to after or after the probes separation? Iguess what I am asking is who was in control of the data being transferred to the craft at the point of separation?

Posted by Edward Douglas (Member # 8872) on :

skadder,

I would surmise that JPL (mission control for Cassini is at Space Flight Operations Facility at JPL)and ESA had some sort of shared database and mainframe link -- secure to the hilt I'm sure.

My best guess is that the Cassini Program Manager Bob Mitchell and his team handled the Cassini side of things when Huygens was disengaged, and turned telemetry tracking over to Jean-Pierre Lebreton, Huygens Project Scientist and Mission Manager at ESA, for the duration of Huygens' life.

Maybe this link will help you out. Good luck with your project.

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/ESOC/

[This message has been edited by Edward Douglas (edited May 16, 2010).]