MaMMoTH-Up
The project "Massively extended Modular Monitoring for Upper Stages" (MaMMoTH-Up) was funded as part of Horizon 2020. The aim of MaMMoTH-Up in this context was to develop a concept and a corresponding demonstrator to fundamentally improve the observability of the Ariane 5 upper stage launch process. To this end, a system was developed that collects sensor data from the environment, filters it intelligently, pre-processes it and then sends relevant data in compressed form to the ground station via telemetry. The system is based on comparatively inexpensive commercial components-off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware, which means that solutions still need to be investigated and applied to ensure error-free operation of the overall system despite the use of potentially error-prone individual components. Only then can COTS be used sensibly in space travel.
To downlink the gathered, processed and compressed data MaMMoTH will make use of the A5 telemetry subsystem acting as a peripheral data acquisition unit once a standard A5 mission is completed. A future application also on ARIANE6 is envisaged.