ESA missions back doing science after precautionary pandemic plug pull: We talk to space boffins about Mars Express emergency command line

ESA's mission operations centre in Germany has got back to doing interplanetary science after a short stand-down due to COVID-19. A member of the agency's mission control workforce was diagnosed with the virus but not before coming into contact with approximately 20 colleagues at the Darmstadt site over the course of two days …

[Anonymous Coward]

Curious (any boffins out there?)

Obviously all in flight spacecraft (save the ISS) have to be operated remotely. Do ESA and NASA have any mechanisms that could be implemented to allow the remote control systems to themselves be accessed remotely?

[Gene Cash]

Re: Curious (any boffins out there?)

Think about the security risk. You want those rather locked down.

Given a high enough value target, and think about how valuable the ISS (or any other spacecraft) is, someone WILL find a way in.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Curious (any boffins out there?)

True. I hadn't thought it through. My bad.

[amanfromMars 1]

Re: Curious (any boffins out there?)

True. I hadn't thought it through. My bad. ..... HildyJ

Of course you had it thought through, HildyJ, for the questions you ask are well crafted and ably answered by another and/or others with even just the one in sympathetic semantic accord empowering simply positive reinforcement and further super stealthy silent secret support of your suspicions which ......... well, may or may not lead to one proceeding way out in front in such fields as one plays in to master, with commands in control of the most unexpected and highly disturbing of actions/highly disruptive explosive systemic events ?

Take a bow, HildyJ. It is well deserved. The implications and consequences of such as are discussed on all current extant systems of remote elite executive office administrative command and control are ...... humungous, and are better and best resolved now sooner rather than any later whenever so much has been comprehensively destroyed by simply planned complex future events unimagined before.

[Trigonoceps occipitalis]

Re: Curious (any boffins out there?)

"high enough value target"

When has that been any concern of script kiddies and others doing it "because we can"?

[Anonymous Custard]

Engineering magnificence

At least as normal as operations get for Cluster, now over 20 years into a two-year mission, and the veteran Mars Express spacecraft.

Another fine example of the superb engineering on these things, although admittedly it probably also says something about the caution of the mission planners as well. How much all these missions just keep on giving is truly marvellous.

Definitely some homebrew (or home stock at least) for all these guys and gals (except when they're programming the things of course)!

[Anonymous Coward]

New Reg unit required

> At least as normal as operations get for Cluster, now over 20 years into a two-year mission

Isn't it about time we had a Reg unit to represent the length of time a space mission runs beyond its original planned lifetime?

Perhaps it could be named after Mars Express as in 'MEXtra' years?

Or maybe call it the Voyager? (Voyager's primary mission completed in 1989 but will run on until 2025 when there is no power left to run science experiments) which equates to 36 extra years. So Cluster's 18 extra years is very conveniently 0.5 of a Voyager.

Maybe you can come up with something better?