ESA GNC Conference Papers Repository

The ESA Pointing Error Engineering Handbook (PEEH) ? and with it also the Pointing Error Engineering Tool (PEET) - has been used in several ESA space mission studies and projects in the last years and became a well-known and broadly accepted reference in the European space community. So far, the application was mainly focused to the field of Earth Observation and Science missions where high-accuracy pointing is generally crucial. However, pointing error engineering for new telecommunication missions has become a more complex and time-consuming task due to the new demands as well: accurately specifying performance and pointing knowledge requirements, identifying and characterising the various error contributors is now critical for the success of these missions. As response, ESA initiated a development study in the Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) programme. This paper summarizes the results of the study with a focus on the updates of the PEET software and an assessment of the benefits and challenges of applying the PEEH process to selected telecommunication mission study cases ? supported by experts from all European telecommunication mission primes as consultants.