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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ARRAKIHS | 2/2 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARRAKIHS | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T12:43:29.657368+00:00 | kb-cron |
The MOC is responsible for operating the ARRAKIHS spacecraft, ensuring its safety and health, managing orbit and attitude control, handling all telemetry and telecommand processes, coordinating ground station access, and serving as the central hub for real-time operations, including anomaly resolution and commissioning activities. The SOC is responsible for planning and executing the scientific operations of the mission, generating observation schedules and instrument commands, processing and validating science data up to Level 1, managing the science archive, supporting the scientific community, and coordinating with the Instrument Operations and Science Data Center (IOSDC) for calibration, higher-level data products, and instrument monitoring. The long-term archive will store the data and will make it publicly available, using Visual Observatory standards within the ESA Sky framework. The Instrument Operations and Science Data Center (IOSDC) is responsaibility of the ARRAKIHS Mission Consortium and manages four key aspects of the mission:
Mission planning: produces the long- and short-term planning of observations and the optimized Concept of Operations (CONOPS). The responsibility of this task is shared with ESA. Instrument operation: produces the protocol for monitoring the operation of the payload, as well as the calibration plan. The calibration team is based at Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC). Data reduction: develops the data reduction pipeline (known as the ARRAKIHS Harvester) to produce all the data product levels and is based at the Centro de Estudios de Fisica del Cosmos de Aragon (CEFCA). Science Data Center: Manages the ARRAKIHS data archive and regular execution of the reduction developed in the data reduction stage. The Science Data Center is located at the Instituto de Física de Cantabria (CSIC-Univ. de Cantabria).
== Mission consortium == The ARRAKIHS Mission Consortium (AMC) is a collaborative network of scientists, engineers, and technical experts from leading research institutes and companies across Europe and beyond. It includes members from Spain, Austria, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Portugal, and the United Kingdom, which are collectively responsible for funding, designing, and operating the mission's scientific and instrumental components. The consortium also collaborates with research institutions from the Netherlands, France, Denmark, the United States, Thailand, and Taiwan. The Spanish company Satlantis serves as the prime contractor for the instrument, leading a group of technological firms across Europe. The AMC is organized into three key operational area: Instrumentation, Science, and the Instrument and Science Data Operations Center (IOSDC), each of which is structured into specialized work packages.
== Synergy with Euclid == ARRAKIHS observations will be complemented by higher-resolution data from Euclid, which will map the same galaxies as part of its Wide Field Survey. The potential synergies between the two missions were studied under an International Space Science Institute (ISSI) project titled "The Extremely Low Surface Brightness Universe: Calling for Synergy between the ESA Euclid and ARRAKIHS Space Missions".
== Timeline == ARRAKIHS is the second F-class mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) within its Cosmic Vision campaign. It was selected on 2 November 2022 with participation from institutions of five ESA member states (Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, and Sweden). Following its selection, the ARRAKIHS consortium expanded, holding its kick-off meeting in Barcelona in July 2023 with representatives from over 15 institutions across the member state and collaborating countries. In November 2023, The ARRAKIHS consortium has successfully passed the mission definition review of the project. In March 2024, the mission completed its Instrument Preliminary Requirements Review (iPRR), concluding Phase A of development and ESA published a call for the definition, development, and operation of the mission. By the end of that year, the ARRAKIHS Mission Consortium had grown to include more than 150 researchers and engineers from more than 40 institutions of different countries and with the confirmation of three more state members (Portugal, Norway, and United Kingdom). In January 2025, the spanish company Added Value Solutions (AVS) and a Belgian subsidiary of Redwire have won contracts for the initial phases of the project. The contracts include preliminary spacecraft design and work to derisk key technologies. In May 2025, the scientific preparation phase of ARRAKIHS, using a terrestrial demonstrator of the iSIM-170 camera, has officially begun at the Astrophysical Observatory of Javalambre in Spain. Pending successful Instrument and Spacecraft Preliminary Design Reviews (iPDR and SC PDR), the mission is expected to achieve adoption by mid-2026. Its launch is scheduled for late 2030.
== See also == Astrophysical Observatory of Javalambre (hosting the ARRAKIHS on-ground demonstrator) Centro de Estudios de Fisica del Cosmos de Aragon (CEFCA; leading the ARRAKIHS data reduction pipeline) Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC) (leading the instrumentation segment of the consortium). IFCA (leading the ARRAKIHS Mission Consortium). List of European Space Agency programmes and missions
== References ==