The Use of the CCSDS File Delivery Protocol on Messenger

Abstract

MErcury, Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) is a NASA Discovery mission to study the planet Mercury. It will be launched in March 2004 and will include two flybys each of Venus and Mercury, followed by Mercury orbit insertion in April 2009 for a one-year science-gathering mission. Through both phases of the mission, MESSENGER will collect data from seven instruments on key characteristics of the planet to further understand Mercury and the formation of the inner solar system. As part of the system software developed by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL), MESSENGER will employ a standard developed by the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) called the CCSDS File Delivery Protocol (CFDP). CFDP is used to telemeter instrument and spacecraft housekeeping and science data stored on a spacecraft’s onboard file system to the ground system, and to transfer files from the ground to the spacecraft. CFDP was chosen for MESSENGER to allow for the reliable and direct transmission of files from the spacecraft to the ground. CFDP also complements the concept of a spacecraft file system, streamlining the gathering of data from instruments and the spacecraft. This paper describes how CFDP will be used on the MESSENGER mission. To provide a framework for