NISAR Mission Systems Development Process Coordination Successes and Challenges

The NISAR mission is an internationally developed and operated partnership between NASA and ISRO which requires a very high degree of integration with international partner elements requiring close coordination between teams separated by 12 time zones and 14,000 km (8700 miles). This Indo-US partnered mission uses two fully polarimetric SARs, one at L-band (L-SAR) and one at S-band (S-SAR), in exact repeating orbits every 12 days that allow the interferometric combination of data on repeated passes. NASA provides the L-SAR; a shared deployable reflector; an engineering payload that supports mission-specific data handling, navigation, and communication functions; science observation planning, and L-SAR data processing. ISRO provides the S-SAR, spacecraft, launch vehicle, satellite operations, and S-SAR data processing. The Mission Systems development process has addressed many unique challenges and incorporates many “pioneering firsts” for a jointly-developed complex and sophisticated radar science mission. Technological innovations in computing and software technologies have allowed Mission Operations Systems to support ever more complex missions. Demand continues for mission systems teams to plan more spacecraft activities with fewer commanding errors, provide scientists and engineers with more autonomous functionality, and process and manage larger and more complex data more quickly. The NISAR mission will serve as an unprecedented example of how two uniquely distinct engineering and science organizations can work together to achieve success in developing and operating a highly complex orbiting radar observatory. This paper discusses the mission systems success and challenges of the systems engineering team coordination between the NASA and ISRO institutions through the mission development process. We provide an overview of mission development and operations characteristics. We further discuss the technology and processes that must focus on supporting operator teamwork and international team coordination, helping increase knowledge sharing between teams and flight engineers.