It has been developed by the Mars Express Ground Segment team at ESOC, ESA's Mission Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany. STAT simulates the conditions that the spacecraft will encounter during each orbit. It has been developed by the Mars Express Ground Segment team at ESOC, ESA's Mission Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany. The observing conditions of any one orbit are different from any other. Each of the seven instruments on board the Mars Express orbiter has different ideal viewing conditions.
Some instruments also require special pointing conditions.
As well as simulating illumination conditions, the software also takes into account how much data can be returned to Earth from each orbit. Mars Express will normally spend the part of its orbit when it's closest to Mars observing the red planet. During the rest of the orbit, it will typically point towards Earth for data transmission back to an ESA ground station in Perth, Australia. STAT will allow the observation versus data transmission time to be optimised for each orbit. It is not always possible, however, to return the same data volume back to Earth.