Event based commanding

This paper presents the software system titled "event based commanding" developed for one of the ground automated mode of telecommanding operations for Indian geo-stationary satellites. Any satellite needs health monitoring, analyzing and controlling with respect to the requirement. Monitoring, analyzing and controlling is done by controller/operator as per the defined and necessary directives. As the number of satellites to be maintained is increasing, automation of ground control and commanding is required for responding quickly for spacecraft specific critical anomalies to avoid human made mistakes and also to reduce the required manpower. Event based commanding has been developed as part of overall automation of ground operations. The present software system provides the facility for defining, monitoring and executing events. An event consists of a logical expression with spacecraft health parameters and corresponding monitoring values and also the list of commands to be sent on the Occurrence of the event continuously for the given number of samples/times. This mode of commanding has been implemented for many of the geo-stationary satellites like INSAT-2C. INSAT-3B, INSATJC, KALPANA-I and INSAT-3A. The software in operation at MCF, Hassan has handled quite a few critical anomalies for INSAT-2C and INSAT-3B, by automatically taking over command control to uplink essential commands. The software has also been efficiently handling certain routine operations like thermal management of satellites.