File Management In Space

We propose that the user interact with the spacecraft as if the spacecraft were a file server, so that the user can select and receive data as files in standard formats (e.g., tables or images, such as jpeg) via the Internet. Internet technology will be used end-to-end from the spacecraft to authorized users, such as the flight operation team, and project scientists. The proposed solution includes a ground system and spacecraft architecture, mission operations scenarios, and an implementation roadmap showing migration from current practice to the future, where distributed users request and receive files of spacecraft data from archives or spacecraft with equal ease. This solution will provide ground support personnel and scientists easy, direct, secure access to their authorized data without cumbersome processing, and can be extended to support autonomous communications with the spacecraft.