2005/04/15 by Jordi Portell, J. Portell, Portell, Jordi +7
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Scientific Research and Discoveries #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0504343
20 pages, 11 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in Experimental Astronomy
arxiv created 2005/04/15 · openalex publication_date 2005/04/15 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Gaia is an ambitious space observatory devoted to obtain the largest and most\nprecise astrometric catalogue of astronomical objects from our Galaxy and\nbeyond. On-board processing and transmission of the huge amount of data\ngenerated by the instruments is one of its several technological challenges.\nThe measurement time tags are critical for the scientific results of the\nmission, so they must be measured and transmitted with the highest precision -\nleading to an important telemetry channel occupation. In this paper we present\nthe optimisation of time data, which has resulted in a useful software tool. We\nalso present how time data is adapted to the Packet Telemetry standard. The\nseveral communication layers are illustrated and a method for coding and\ntransmitting the relevant data is described as well. Although our work is\nfocused on Gaia, the timing scheme and the corresponding tools can be applied\nto any other instrument or mission with similar operational principles.\n