Small control room

The control rooms of the Microgravity User Support Centre (MUSC) are located at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) site in Cologne. Two control rooms designed for the operation of scientific space facilities have been set up in the MUSC building. These control rooms are equipped with standardised infrastructure and are configured according to mission requirements. The equipment provided as standard includes communication interfaces with ISDN access and secure web access via firewall technology, a separate office communications network area, a video conferencing system, air-conditioned computer rooms, a multimedia wall, a conference room and uninterrupted power networks. The Small Control Room hosts 10 workstations for control and monitoring. There are data and audio links to ESA’s European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, the JPL mission centre in Pasadena, and JAXA’s Tsukuba Space Center. The data links and protocols are used in accordance with the international standards for the mission architecture specified by the space agencies.