Science Operations of the Herschel Space Observatory

Herschel, an orbital cryogenic astronomical observatory and ESA cornerstone science mission, recently ceased observations after 4-years operation near L2. Herschel’s three instruments (HIFI, PACS, and SPIRE) performed photometry and spectroscopy in the 55 - 671 micron far-infrared and sub-millimetre range. Its 3.5 metre diameter telescope was the largest ever launched. Centres at ESAC, ESOC, ESTEC, NASA and PI centres within several ESA member states collaborated in its development and operation, with over 200 contributors around the world contributing to its software systems. Its user community consists primarily of several thousand astronomers spread around the world.

By design, a single software and infrastructural system met the needs of all mission phases from early instrument development to post-operations. This 'smooth transition' approach meant that systems first proven in development activities before launch were ready to support in-flight operations and, with appropriate evolution, continue in use now in the mission Post-operations Phase, greatly streamlining the overall testing and validation challenge, and facilitating the long term maintenance of the system, with increased reliability.

This presentation offers, against the background of the above design considerations, an overview of the science operations of the Herschel mission with reference to the wide range of systems and processes, and of community support mechanisms, deployed to implement the mission tasks of observing-proposal capture, mission planning and scheduling, instrument commanding, monitoring and calibration, data processing, scientific and general product generation and data archiving up to legacy status.

Technology reuse is a key element of the Herschel design, with many of the mission tasks mentioned above drawing upon, or contributing to, concepts and tools developed for corresponding applications in other missions. Numerous instances of such reuse, or potential reuse, are cited.