How many people are involved in flight operations for Topex/Poseidon?
At the beginning of the mission, there were 50 to 60 members of the flight team. Now, we have an integrated multi-mission team of about 15 to 20 people who support the mission operations. Q: What have been some of the challenges? A: Controlling attitude, the orientation of the satellite to Earth or the Sun, is a major issue for the satellite engineering team. Precise attitude control for Topex/Poseidon is critical in ensuring an accurate measurement of the sea-surface height. Most elements of attitude control are performed automatically onboard with some maintenance and calibration functions done on the ground. Over the years, we’ve implemented software changes and found back door commands to make the satellite behave a little differently than originally designed to meet current flight conditions. Topex/Poseidon has two star trackers–that’s a device that senses the position of certain stars and helps the spacecraft maintain the correct attitude. One had a problem soon after launch and
