This volume aims to provide a definitive description of the various models of Mission Operations Systems (MOS) available to the Project Manager, the Operations Manager, or to the student, to aid in the understanding and design of a cost-effective mission operations system for future unmanned, remote sensing missions, either Earth-observing or planetary. The text provides an account of the Mission Operations Systems design process and of general principles of the designs themselves. Professionals designing a Mission Operations System, and students of remote sensing or other spacecraft missions who need to know how one is organized and run, should find it useful. NASA's program, the Magellan mission to Venus, is described as a detail MOS case study. The principles expressed in this book can be applied to all types of scientific remote sensing missions to effect an efficient, comprehensive and cost-effective design.

A definitive description of the various models of mission operations systems MOS which provides an account of the design process and of the general principles of the designs themselves. The principles described can be applied to all types of scientific remote sensing.

In the succession of distinguished visitors from Earth to Venus, the Magellan spacecraft has been the most recent. The visitors through the years have consisted of an armada of spacecraft - flybys, orbiters, and landers. Each managed to pierce a small hole in the veil of mystery that has surrounded Venus since the discovery of the telescope. This manuscript offers but a peek at the treasures to be found in the Magellan dataset - and a glimpse into the volumes that have been and will continue to be written regarding the geology of Venus. As the reader looks throughout this book, he will be led one-by-one through the treasures Magellan has gathered - in a manner neither stilted nor oversimplified - and the reader will gain an appreciation of Venus that spans several disciplines and several realms.