Satellite Operations Control Center

The SOCC is located inside TASA. It is the main facility of the satellite ground system. It uses a single platform to operate and control several satellites simultaneously.  The SOCC contains a number of subsystems, including Mission Operation Center, Mission Control Center, Flight Dynamic Facility, Science Control Center and Ground Communication Network.

Through the communication network, the SOCC monitors and controls three S-band Antenna Stations and an X-band Antenna Station as well as performs data transmission to the Image Processing Center and each Science Data Distribution Center of FORMOSAT series satellites.
 

Satellite Operations Contral Center

Mission Operation Center
Mission operation center is in charge of the 24-hour operation of satellite missions and the monitoring and control of the ground stations. The main functions include command uplink, telemetry processing, satellite and payload monitoring, crisis management, ground station monitoring, operation database management, satellite data analysis and archive.

Mission Control Center
Mission control center is in charge of the operation planning and command scheduling of the satellite and payload including the operation timeline planning, operation conflict resolution, pass planning and confirmation of remote ground stations, and satellite command load generation.

Flight Dynamic Facility
Flight dynamics facility is in charge of the analysis of the onboard GPS data and the antenna-collected tracking data to control the satellite flight dynamics. The main functions include orbit determination, orbit transfer, ground track plotting, orbit dynamics analysis, and constellation management.

Science Control Center
Science control center is the scientific data processing center of the satellite ground system. It is a bridge connecting the satellite ground system and the science data distribution center. The main functions include the operation planning and management of the scientific payload, and the pre-processing and archive of the scientific data.

Ground Communication Network
Ground communication network is in charge of the internal and external data transmission of the SOCC. The SOCC network main frame is the Gigabitethernet. The SOCC connects to the ground stations in Chungli and Tainan through a high quality TaiWan Advanced Research and Education Network (TWAREN). It also connects to the remote ground stations and launch site through the VPN (Visual Private Network) path.

S-band Telemetry, Tracking and Command Station
S-band TT&C Stations are in charge of the satellite command uplink and satellite telemetry reception. It consists of base-band equipment, time and frequency equipment, antenna control and monitoring facility, Radio-Frequency equipment, and an 8-meter dish antenna. TASA has three S-band TT&C stations in the campus of National Central University in Chungli and National Cheng-Kung University in Tainan. Each station is equipped with the same system components and functions.

X-band Antenna System
X-band receiving station for remote sensing image data is located on the roof of the building of TASA in Hsin-Chu. It is a 7.2-meter dish antenna. The maximal receiving data rate is 600 Mbps. The main function is to receive the remote sensing image data down-linked from the FORMOSAT-5 satellite, and transfer the data to the Image Processing Center for image processing and analysis.