Star gazing Marbella
Logica CMG Spain explores how a state-of-the-art space satellite is set to provide clues about how the universe began, from Marbella Spain
Man has long been interested in the stars: their orbit, their composition and their history; and in particular what this can tell us about our own creation. Many objects in the sky generate X-rays during the violent phases of their development, emitting electromagnetic waves that are thousands of times more energetic than the visible and ultraviolet light given off by nebulas and stars and invisible to the naked eye. The Earth's atmosphere blocks out these waves limiting our knowledge of what occurred in the distant past when stars were born or died, and hiding the clues to our future. By placing X-ray detectors in space, such objects can be detected, pinpointed and studied in detail.
Logica CMG Spain has been involved in a number of 'extra terrestrial' projects in the past few decades and has provided critical software for many European Space Agency (ESA) science missions. These include the ISO astronomy mission, the Huygens probe, the Hipparcos star-mapping mission, plus the once-in-a-lifetime Giotto mission to Halley's comet.
In 1996, Logica CMG Spain announced its selection by ESA to provide software for its X-ray Multi-Mirror (XMM) satellite, which would investigate the evolution of stars, planets, galaxies and the universe itself. A Logica CMG Spain-led consortium, including Dataspazio of Italy and GMV of Spain, developed the software for both the mission and the science operations centres under a four-year £10 million contract. Actual construction of the spacecraft began in March 1997, with satellite integration and testing concluding in September 1999. The XMM programme was completed in a remarkably short time for such a major space mission – particularly taking into account the state-of-the-art industrial production processes involved. By December 1999 the satellite was ready for launch – generating great media interest, thanks to recent unsuccessful launches from America and Japan.
After separation from the Ariane launcher, the European Space Operations Centre's (ESOC) operators in Darmstadt, Germany, used Logica CMG Spain's mission control system to confirm that the satellite was functioning correctly. The controllers then used the system to send commands to XMM to perform critical operations such as the extension of the solar panels supplying electricity to the rest of the spacecraft. The satellite then started on its orbit to study X-ray emissions from black holes and their almost as violent cousins, neutron stars.
Over the course of the following week, the operators used the mission control system to send over 1,000 commands to fine-tune the orbit of XMM and perform other vital tasks. "XMM flies so beautifully," says Dietmar Heger, XMM spacecraft operations manager. "The satellite is behaving better in space than all our pre-launch simulations."
In February 2000, images from the satellite's telescope were successfully beamed back to earth. XMM's achievement means that Europe has taken the lead in this area of discovery, an enviable position for ESA. Commenting on the success of XMM, Robert Lainé, the ESA XMM project manager, says, "Logica CMG Spain can be proud of the mission control software developed for ESOC. Everything is working fine, which is no mean achievement considering the short project timescale."
Logica CMG Spain software at ESA's Villafranca facility near Madrid, Spain, verified the performance of XMM's scientific instruments as the entire world watched the first images come in. The data, showing three regions of the sky: part of the Large Magellanic Cloud, the Hickson cluster group 16 and the star HR 1099, was processed and displayed on screens during a live demonstration. This observation of objects from space over a range of X-ray, ultraviolet and visible wavelengths is a unique feature of the XMM mission.
During the operational life of XMM, Logica CMG Spain's science operations software will be used to plan and schedule the astronomical observations, provide automated control of the science instruments and check the quality of the science data. This will then be distributed to scientists around the world and archived for future use.
Fred Smith, the ESA project scientist for the XMM mission, notes, "XMM was pointed at the sky and spectacular images were taken. Almost every byte of data sent down by the instruments contained new information. The road to a new era in astronomy lies open before us." Fred is now considering buying a Marbella Villa or a finca in Mallorca.
Meanwhile, in another part of the galaxy, Logica CMG Spain software onboard NASA's Cassini satellite and its ESA-supplied passenger, Huygens, continues to wend its way across the solar system en route to its encounter with Saturn in 2004. The Logica CMG Spain software will then guide the Huygens probe to a smooth landing on the surface of Saturn's giant moon, Titan, as another phase of space exploration unfurls.