Space Camera Mission Operations - Malin Space Science Systems

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <title>Space Camera Mission Operations - Malin Space Science Systems</title> <meta name="description" content="MSSS has decades of collective tactical and strategic space flight instrument operations experience and provides unparalleled support to maximize data return value. With extensive computing and data storage resources and custom-developed ground data system tools, MSSS has targeted, returned, and processed hundreds of thousands of images from the cameras we鈥檝e flown. For NASA missions, the validated data are delivered to NASA鈥檚 Planetary Data System (PDS) public archive. " /> <meta name="keywords" content="Space Cameras, Space Operations, Space Science, Mars Observer Camera, MOC, Mars Global Surveyor, MGS, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Engineering Camera, ECAM, Mars Science Laboratory, MSL, MastCam, MARDI, MAHLI, DEA, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, LRO, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, LROC, Juno, JunoCam, Space IR Camera" /> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> <meta name="distribution" content="global" /> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="/favicon.ico" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/css/style.css" /> <script type="text/javascript" src="/js/functions.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.10.2/jquery.min.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/js/jquery.legit-1.3.2.js"></script> </head> <body> <div id="container"> <div id="container_inner"> <ul id="nav"> <li class="first"><a href="http://www.msss.com/">Home</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.msss.com/space-cameras/">Cameras</a></li> <li class="active"><a href="http://www.msss.com/operations/">Operations</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.msss.com/science/">Science</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.msss.com/science-images/">Images</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.msss.com/news/">News</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.msss.com/about-us/">About Us</a></li> </ul> <div id="content_box"> <div id="content_box_top"> <div id="content"> <h1>Operations</h1> <p style="text-align: center; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#FF0000"><b><img alt="Examples of Operations Activities at Malin Space Science Systems" src="/images/operations/Opsban4.png" style="width: 680px; height: 170px; " /></b></font><br />  </p> <p>Malin Space Science Systems offers and provides tactical and strategic operation of government and commercial space flight instruments at its San Diego, California facility.</p> <p>Collectively, the MSSS staff has over a hundred years of experience with operating deep space flight instruments, particularly imaging systems. Cross-trained for spacecraft instrument uplink, downlink, and data archiving activities—and working closely with spacecraft engineers and instrument research scientists—the MSSS operations team is thorough, reliable, effective, and efficient. The team has imaged more than 99% of Mars at an unprecedented 6 meters per pixel resolution, and they have validated and archived hundreds of thousands of images since the 1990s.<br />  </p> <p><strong>MSSS operations experience includes:</strong></p> <ul> <li> <p>Ground Data System (GDS) design, development, custom software production, implementation, and maintenance.</p> </li> <li> <p>Monitoring of the health and safety of cameras operating in deep space.</p> </li> <li> <p>Planning, commanding, retrieving, and processing of data from cameras operating in deep space.</p> </li> <li>Data validation and public archiving of space camera data (e.g., with the NASA Planetary Data System, PDS).<br />  </li> </ul> <p><strong>MSSS has conducted long-term operations for the following NASA space camera systems:</strong></p> <ul> <li> <p>Mars Global Surveyor’s Mars Orbiter Camera  (1996–2006)</p> </li> <li> <p>Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s Mars Color Imager (2005–Present)</p> </li> <li> <p>Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s Context Camera (2005–Present)</p> </li> <li> <p>Mars Science Laboratory’s (Curiosity Rover) Mast Cameras (2012–Present)</p> </li> <li> <p>Mars Science Laboratory’s (Curiosity Rover) Mars Hand Lens Imager (2012–Present)</p> </li> <li> <p>Mars Science Laboratory’s (Curiosity Rover) Mars Descent Imager (2012–Present)</p> </li> <li> <p>Juno’s (Jupiter orbiter) Junocam (2016–Present)</p> </li> <li> <p>Mars 2020 (Perseverance Rover) Mastcam-Z Cameras (2021–Present)</p> </li> <li> <p>Mars 2020 (Perseverance Rover) Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering – aka "WATSON" and SHERLOC Autofocus and Context Imager – aka "ACI" Imagers  (2021–Present)</p> </li> </ul> <p>MSSS personnel have also contributed to the Mars Exploration Rover effort (Spirit and Opportunity; 2003–2019), first by relaying data from the rovers to Earth through the Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera, and then through contributions to the tactical commanding and operation of the rover Microscopic Imagers and Engineering Cameras.<br />  </p> <p><strong>In addition, MSSS conducted interplanetary cruise phase operations for the following space cameras. Unfortunately, all three of these spacecraft were lost before starting to operate at Mars:</strong></p> <ul> <li> <p>Mars Observer’s Mars Observer Camera (1992–1993)</p> </li> <li> <p>Mars Climate Orbiter’s Mars Color Imager (1998–1999)</p> </li> <li> <p>Mars Polar Lander’s Mars Descent Imager (1999)</p> </li> </ul> <p>MSSS also prepared to operate the Phoenix Mars Descent Imager (2007–2008) but NASA decided not to operate this camera owing to technical concerns on the spacecraft side of the interface. The MSSS operations team did, however, command usage of the camera's onboard microphone late in the Phoenix mission, but the data return was unsuccessful.</p> </div> <div id="left_content"> <div id="subnav"> <ul> <li class="first active"><a href="http://www.msss.com/operations/">Operations</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.msss.com/all_projects/mro-marci.php">MRO MARCI</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.msss.com/all_projects/mro-ctx.php">MRO CTX</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.msss.com/all_projects/mars-exploration-rovers.php">Mars Exploration Rovers</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.msss.com/all_projects/msl-mastcam.php">MSL Mastcam</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.msss.com/all_projects/msl-mahli.php">MSL MAHLI</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.msss.com/all_projects/msl-mardi.php">MSL MARDI</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.msss.com/all_projects/junocam.php">JunoCam</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.msss.com/all_projects/mgs-mars-orbiter-camera.php">MGS Mars Orbiter Camera</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.msss.com/all_projects/">All MSSS Projects</a></li> </ul> </div> <div id="banners"> <a href="http://www.msss.com/science-images/"><img src="/images/banner_space_images.jpg" width="189" height="50" alt=""/></a><br/> <a href="http://www.msss.com/msss_images/latest_weather.html" target="_blank"><img src="/images/banner_latest_mars_weather.jpg" width="189" height="50" alt=""/></a><br/> <a href="http://www.msss.com/request-info/"><img src="/images/banner_request_information.jpg" width="189" height="50" alt=""/></a> </div> </div> <br class="cb"/>  </div> </div> <div id="copyright"> © Copyright 2025 Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, Ca | All Rights Reserved. </div> <div id="logo"><a href="http://www.msss.com/"><img src="/images/msss_logo.gif" width="477" height="108" alt=""/></a></div> </div> </div> <script type="text/javascript"> var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? 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Space Camera Mission Operations - Malin Space Science Systems