Mission Ops
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Raw data sent from the RHESSI satellite.

 The satellite transmitting data back to the Mission Operations Center at Space Sciences Lab on the University of California, Berkeley campus. An outside image of a large satellite dish at the Mission Operations Center at Space Sciences Lab on the University of California, Berkeley campus. An inside image of a room filled with computers.

Raw data from the satellite were transmitted from the spacecraft to the Mission Operations Center at Space Sciences Lab on the University of California, Berkeley campus.  The data was stored on-board in solid-state memory which does not rely on moving parts and was therefore reliable in the harsh and rapidly changing temperatures of orbit in space.  Data was downloaded during ten minute "passes" during which RHESSI's orbit carried it directly above the antenna pictured above.  These passes also provided flight operators with a chance to uplink commands to the spacecraft.   

Once data was received by the antenna, they were transmitted along fiber-optic cables to Mission Operations where the data was unpacked from raw form and cut onto CD-ROMs and distributed to co-investigators for research.  RHESSI data was also archived and posted on the world-wide web for other researchers in the scientific community and for the general public.

Last updated 02/01/2010 © UC Regents