Space Science and Robotics
RHEA has supporte
d more than ten interplanetary, asteroid, lunar and deep space astronomy science and robotic space missions. RHEA has provided science operations services for the Ulysses, Integral, Mars Express, Venus Express, Rosetta, Herschel, Planck, XMM-Newton, Cluster, Lisa Pathfinder and James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) space missions.
RHEA scientists and engineers have been providing system and software engineering services during the planning and preparation phases of science space missions. Subsequently, RHEA is also involved in science operations activities, such as the definition of spacecraft and instrument command sequences, low-level data provision to instrument teams, dissemination of calibrated instrument data to the scientific community, and design and implementation of a legacy archive for the science output.
For example, for the Planck mission RHEA scientists that contributed to the Planck instrument development also participated in the scientific exploitation of the Planck data during the proprietary period.
Examples of the activities performed by RHEA include:
- Science Operations for Ulysses, Integral, LISA Pathfinders, Herschel
- Planck Science Operations with the provision of competencies in the Low Frequency Instrument(LFI) and High Frequency Instrument (HFI) operations, pre-launch operations and Planck Science Operations plans
- Spacecraft Operations Engineering for XMM-Newton
- Attitude and Orbit Control System (AOCS) for XMM-Newton and BepiColombo
- System Engineering activities for Integral and Planck
- Technical Administration for Science Operations for GAIA
