The Space to Ground Interface Control Documents (S2GICD) and it's applicable documents define the data interfaces between each the satellites and their instruments to the ground segment, embedding ground stations, the Flight Operation Segment as well as the Payload Ground Segment. It is the central part for the monitoring and control, data processing and distribution of monitoring and control data received from the satellite. This document is typically sent to the Flight Operating Segment (FOS) and while some of this information is indeed unique, most of it is in fact already covered by the existing ground segment functionality and require no development. This information includes: Ground Station Link Geometry, Uplink, Downlink and Ranging characteristics; Virtual Channel, MAP ID, Spacecraft ID, etc.. To a degree the effort to setup the ground segment from these documents has been already been mitigated by having the satellite provider deliver the SCOS MIB which contains the telemetry and telecommand packet definitions. Nevertheless, plenty of the available information is later mapped into the Monitoring and Control System Software Requirement Specification (MCSSRS) and only eventually into configuration variables of the control system. In VisionSpace we have been working for some time in automating the setup and deployment all typical configurations of the monitoring and control system, the missing step however is to relate this to a database of existing S2CGICDs and propose a single input file that can be delivered in addition to the - already provided - telemetry and telecommand packet definitions. We can then extend the existing software tool Environment Configuration Control System (E2CS) to also support this format. This should lower the overall implementation costs for the mission, and reduce the amount of needed documentation by removing the manual processing and troubleshooting of these variables.
