CCSDS Implementation, Concept, and Architecture of the Psyche Mission's End-to-End Information System

The Psyche Mission is a mission to the asteroid (16) Psyche, featuring three science instruments and gravity science. (16) Psyche, located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, will be the first potential metal world—instead of rock or ice—visited by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) managed mission will explore Psyche for 21 months after an earliest launch date of August 2022 and a 3.5-year cruise. In this paper, the End-to-End Information System’s (EEIS) concept, architecture, and the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) standards implementation of Psyche are studied and analyzed for fulfilment of mission requirements and for satisfaction of operational constraints. The EEIS is a virtual system comprised of distributed data system functions through the subsystems. The system is defined by how the flight, mission, and launch systems work together to enable Psyche’s data flows (uplink, downlink, spacecraft, and ground), as well as validate, account for, process, distribute, and store Psyche’s data. This data includes spacecraft commands, spacecraft health, and instrument science data. EEIS Engineers are specifically responsible for the concept formulation of the information system, its design architecture, as well as the implementation of the CCSDS standards in the flight to ground interface from a high-level project system engineering perspective. This includes evaluating the mission’s operational constraints and requirements as well as inherited mission infrastructure. Criteria for evaluating mission information include the quantity, quality, latency, and continuity (QQCL) of the data. In this paper, the Psyche EEIS will be evaluated in relation to these four criteria. Thus, this paper focuses on the following: the driving EEIS requirements based on program, project, science, and operability requirements; the views and analysis of the EEIS conceptual design; the CCSDS standards implementation; and the EEIS layered architecture comprised of its data flows, flight assets, mission operations system (MOS), ground/science data systems, and multi-mission services. The possible advantages and limitations of the Psyche EEIS architecture and suggestions for future space missions are also discussed.