Located at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics
Laboratory in Laurel, Md., the Mission Operations Center (MOC)
serves as the interface between the MESSENGER science and engineering
teams
and the spacecraft. The Center’s primary responsibility is
to maintain the health of the spacecraft – which the Mission
Operations team does by conducting routine contacts with the
spacecraft
through NASA’s Deep Space Network of antenna stations. During
these contacts, the MOC receives housekeeping data (called telemetry)
from the spacecraft to evaluate its current health and plays back
science-observation data recorded on the spacecraft’s Solid
State Recorder. Additionally, the MOC uses this opportunity to
transmit
planned command sequences to the spacecraft.
While maintaining spacecraft health, the Mission
Operations team works with the Science and Mission Design teams
to develop
activity sequences for the spacecraft and its instruments. Activity
requests from these teams are integrated with maintenance activities
to develop command loads that define spacecraft activities within
a planning period.
From left to right, front row: Alice Berman (Payload Operations Manager), Karl Whittenburg (MA, DMOM), Andy Calloway (Operations Team Manager)
Back row: Hong Kang (Payload G&C), James Hudson (MA), Rick Shelton (MA), Kim Ord (MA), Dave Sepan (MA), Nori Laslo (MDIS Analyst), George Lawrence (FC), Don Mackey (MA/FC), Mark Kochte (MASCS Analyst)
Not Shown: Bob Nelson (MA), Chris Regan (FC Lead), Ed Colwell (FC), Jason Price (FC), Sarah Hamilton (Payload Operations), Sheila Zurvalec (Office Administrator)
MA = Mission Analyst; FC = Flight Controller
The MESSENGER Mission Operations Team
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
Laurel, Maryland
