The importance and organisation of the Eurostar In Flight Lessons Learnt at EADS-Astrium : operations, process and tools. P. Pessah, I.

Transcription

1 The importance and organisation of the Eurostar In Flight Lessons Learnt at EADS-Astrium : operations, process and tools P. Pessah, I. Espada EADS-Astrium, Toulouse, France. Eurostar Fleet in orbit, some key figures Today (end of March 2004), there are 23 Eurostar satellite in orbit of 4 different bus types: Eurostar E1000, E2000, E2000+ and E3000. The oldest in orbit is Inmarsat 2 F1, which was launched 13 years ago. The youngest is W3A which was the first E3000 platform launched mid March AFRISTAR INM 4 F2 TC2B HB5 ASTRA2B INM 4 F1 TC2A HB2 ST-1 W1 Amazonas Arabsat 4A Skynet5 INM2 F3 HISP1A TC2D NIL101 NIL102 INT X-02 Anik F1R HB8 INM2 F1 INM2 F2 INM2 F4 HISP1B TelStar11 TC2C HB3 HB4 ASIASTAR HellaSat W3A INM 4 F3 Arabsat 4B The fleet is now entering in a turnover cycle as the first E2000 was re-orbited in summer 2003 and two other E2000 should be re-orbited in On the other hand, the Eurostar fleet will expand with 10 new satellites to be launched in the next 3 years. All those telecommunications satellites cumulate more than 400 transponders and 180 years of in-orbit operations. These satellites demonstrate an outstanding reliability performance. Genesis of the In Flight Lessons Learnt The feedback from in-orbit operations to projects does exist since the first Eurostar was launched. But it was only based on documents archival and people relationships. There was no formal process but it was efficient as there were only few engineering team and few projects in parallel. This was not more adequate few years later when the number of satellites supported by EADS Astrium has increased. Up to 8 satellites were manufactured in parallel with several products being developed (E3000 SX, S, XL, AlphaBus ). The development of the E3000 was a big industrial challenge for EADS Astrium and, with the natural staff turn-over, therte was a risk to loose some key people who had the knowledge. That is why Astrium managers decided 3 years ago to formalize the experience we get from the satellites in-orbit, and to feedback it to the projects engineers and the product designers according to a configured process. Mission of the In Flight Lessons Learnt Board The main objective was to ensure that the communication of the In-Orbit experience would be reliable on the long term, homogeneous and exhaustive. Reliable on the long term by maintaining a team with key expertise. Homogeneous, to ensure that all the actors share the same level of information. Exhaustive, to ensure the quick communication of all significant events 1 of 7

2 Another objective was to improve Customer satisfaction and the Satellite insurers confidence in Eurostar satellites. To reach these objectives, a Board was officially appointed in October 2001 with nominated key people. This team covers both Platform and Payload areas and is composed of a Customer Support representative (who is the team leader), a Product Assurance manager, a Eurostar bus product Designer, a Payload architect, a Platform architect, a Marketing representative and a Supply Chain representative. Additional people required according to the Space events may join this kernel team on request. In Flight Lessons Learnt Process The Board manages the in-orbit anomaly or events from investigation to conclusion within a configured process (Flight Occurrence Review Board process) as described in the following picture and detailed hereafter. 2 of 7

3 1. DATA COLLECTION Input data is collected through the analysis of telemetry information, providing a good visibility on the spacecraft behaviour. We focus our analyses on anomalies as well as ageing effect, degradations, space environment Some details about the automatic data processing tools are given in the following chapters. In-orbit anomalies are either raised by the customer or by Astrium Customer Support team. An anomaly is taken into account in the Experience return process as soon as such an event can occur on an other spacecraft. It covers both failures and abnormal behaviour. In-orbit experience ensures the return to design of discrepancies between the actual behaviour and predicts, and all events leading to operational mistakes. 2. PROCESS MANAGEMENT: Organisation, validation and reporting Except critical phases for which short-term decisions/actions are taken, the Board organize a monthly meeting and asynchronous dedicated FORBs to ensure that the medium-term is also properly managed. Monthly working meeting agenda: Review of the events experienced during the month. Formal issue of an anomaly at experience return level, if necessary. Decide about the level of an anomaly (minor, major, critical) Formal management of the anomalies status (opening, closure at experience return level) Report on FORB status to all people who have to known Definition of the available data for internal and external communication on identified anomalies Feedback from procurement about the equipment alerts Feedback from problems raised by projects at equipment level or in AIT. Synthesis of the health status of the fleet and the associated risk on its current mission. 3. FORB PROCESS The Board manages major in-orbit anomaly investigations via an MRB like process called FORB (Flight Occurrences Review Board) in two steps that can be, if necessary, be merged in one board : FORB0 : Investigations and Alert First the Board will try to understand the anomaly and its impacts. Then it will decide the level of the anomaly depending on the effect on the mission and on the operation (standard, generic, tiger team) The Board will define the most probable anomaly scenario and will sound an alert to several entities: In Flight Operations, Projects, Eurostar product, Payload product Each entity is fully responsible of the management of the alert at the appropriate level. In particular they open and manage their own FORB if necessary. Feedback of the impact and implementation at each entity level is given to FORB0. FORB0 can recommend the organisation of a tiger team and top managers may take the decision of the tiger team organisation. 3 of 7

4 FORB1 : Recommendations As the result of the FORB0 investigations the In-Orbit anomaly FORB1, is in charge of issuing recommendations for: Operational recommendations for the affected satellite and the other potential affected satellites (actions in risk reduction) Ground recommendations for the satellite in integration Design recommendations for the products in development The Board is in charge of establishing and maintaining the record of actions, and closing out the FORB after checking that all assigned actions have been completed. The FORB is formally closed out when: all the raised Operational recommendations are implemented all the actions/decisions taken by the Eurostar and Payload product groups are formally fed back to to the Board all the documents issued during the investigation are properly archived in the Database. 4. ARCHIVAL: Lesson learnt Database / information broadcast The Board is responsible of archiving and reporting about the fleet status (in orbit events, investigation progress report, status of spacecraft). To reach this objective, a database tool has been specified, developed and implemented. It includes: all the flight occurrences recorded in orbit all the In-Orbit anomaly (critical, major and minor) the list of documents issued during investigations actions raised during FORB recommendations and alerts raised during the FORB This database allow to manage the In-Orbit anomaly status and to computate a number of statistics and availability figures per equipment. It is accessible through a controlled intranet web site. 5. COMMUNICATION The Board is fully responsible to define and provide the formal technical communication on available data. The Board sends out a regular fleet status report through monthly reports. Then the relevant managers do the communication to the customers. The Marketing team is responsible for any other communication (insurance, press, Astrium News, etc ) Tools for data collection: Daily processing of telemetry In order to ensure adequate data collection, EADS Astrium has developed a powerful Telemetry data processing. The objective was to provide to the satellite engineers: A quick and synthetic view of the health status of the Eurostar fleet An easy way to get very detailed information on any Telemetry parameter 4 of 7

5 The telemetry is locally received in Toulouse (if the satellite is in visibility) or transferred once a day from the Customer Satellite Control Centre. Then the telemetry is processed by the Astrium Control Centre and can display live/replay telemetry on PCs or workstations. Every night at 1 am, a batch process extracts and filters the main telemetry parameters that were pre-selected as being part of the significant set of parameters of each satellite (typically 50 parameters per satellite). From 5 am to 9 am, those parameters are plotted and the Minimum, Maximum and Average are computed. At 9 am, the results are all available on the Astrium Intranet server for consultation. The same tool allows an expert to request a plot of up to 50 parameters over one hour, one month or several days. The results are quickly send back to the engineer who made the request. As an example, here are some plots issued from the Intranet server: 5 of 7

6 Flight Occurrences Database The FO Data Base was developed and -validated in 2001, it is today fully operational. Since Jan 1st, 2002, all anomalies have been recorded in the database and, in parallel, historical data relative to past events are progressively input in the database. The experience covering more than 450 Flight Occurrences is available today. The tool is now fully integrated in the FORB process and routinely used. The FO Data Base is a major industrial asset for In Flight operations because it provides long-term experience capitalisation and supports large-scale satellite operations. A specific view of the flight occurrence database is defined for experience return purpose, which includes: A description of the anomaly including its root cause Resulting alert/recommendations with their implementation status A flag for experience return interest A table on impacted satellites and informed customers Closure status 6 of 7

7 The access to this database is given to the Board, the Customer Support Team and selected Satellite designers. Lessons learnt benefits: an Example An example of the interest of the FORB process is given hereafter. One of the Eurostar (Called SAT1) got an anomaly in its payload telemetry. The Channel Amplifiers (CAMP) telemetry status (Gain and Level) suddenly drop to a zero value, without any command send by the ground. It was quickly diagnosed that the error was limited misleading TM, which did not reflect the actual status of the CAMPs. After deep investigations, the root cause of this anomaly was found as being a SET (Single Event Transient) which impacted the data acquisition controller of these telemetry. In particular, an electronic component of the PIU (Payload Interface Unit), called LM139, was found sensitive to SET under certain conditions. According to the FORB process, a Warning notice was issued: to SAT2 support team, equipped with the same PIU design to Eurostar generic product designers Later on, an anomaly occurred on several EPC (Electrical Power Converters) which showed several Spurious Switch Off occurrences. The EPC suppliers were alerted and they provided a list of potential causes. This list included the SET effect as being a possible root cause, but with very low probability. The Experience return from SAT1 pushed EADS Astrium to verify the LM139 mounting circuitry inside these EPC units and, after checking the design of the unit, concluded that EPC sensitivity to SET explained the anomaly. With this example, it is clear that, even on different programmes, and different unit from different suppliers, the lessons learnt process put in place led to focus quickly on the anomaly root cause. Conclusion: A Significant Improvement The Lessons Learnt process ensures shortest warning delay for any kind of anomaly or event. Furthermore, it allows a cross-project & cross-equipment synthetic view. The communication with on-going projects is highly improved and ensures not only feedback from In- Orbit Performance Monitoring but also from the experience gained on the ground during the satellite design and integration phase. In the near future, Eurostar 3000 satellites will be integrated in this process. 7 of 7