Planetary mission operations

A high-level overview is presented of the process through which the uplink segment of NASA's prospective planetary missions will be instituted; the overview is supplemented by suggestions as to how costs can be reduced. Uplink costs constitute two-thirds of the total cost of operations. Attention is given to 'sequence loading', which is a time-lagged set of commands and supporting information that is prepared on the ground and uplinked to the spacecraft's onboard computer. The sequence is the primary guide used by the spacecraft to accomplish its mission; sequences are supplemented by real-time commands that are executed upon reception from the ground.