The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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When the objectives for a test plan have been agreed, the GSRF team then conduct the test campaign, which can take days or even weeks depending on the scope and complexity of the test.
A typical test campaign will ensure that the ground segment software – today, ESA uses a generic mission control system called Satellite Control and Operation System (SCOS) – is tested in the configuration needed for its specific mission (going to Mars is utterly different from going to Mercury) in a complete operational chain.
This means ensuring that the commands entered by a flight control engineer into the mission control system are properly processed, transferred to the (simulated) ground station, transmitted into space by the (simulated) radio antenna and received and executed onboard the (simulated) spacecraft. Then the reply from the (simulated) spacecraft must be downlinked in the reverse direction, via the (simulated) ground station again, and, again, properly processed by the mission control system.
To ensure that the ground segment is working, this test process is repeated as often as needed, typically using automated test control software so that GSRF engineers can focus on more critical tasks