DUC

DESC is embedded in a larger structure for 'User Support' within the Netherlands. The Dutch user support is arranged within the 'Dutch Utilisation Center', DUC. Within DUC there are three entities, i.e.

• The Dutch Operations Center (DOC), located at the NLR in the 'Noord-Oost Polder' and mainly concerned with operational tasks within the user support.
• The Dutch Utilisation of Technology (DUT), a group of companies that develop and supply the technology needed for user support.
• The Dutch Experiment Support Center (DESC). See DESC for its tasks.

Within the ESA framework for user support nearly all ESA member states involved in microgravity research implemented user support centers or USOC's. The Dutch user support, DUC, is governed by the Netherlands Agency for Aerospace Programs (NIVR) and the Space Research Organization of the Netherlands (SRON) through the 'DUC steering group' currently chaired by the NIVR.

Structure of the Dutch Utilisation Center (DUC)

The Dutch Utilisation Center and its steering committee by NIVR and SRON has been established in 1998. One of the reasons for this setup is the outcome of the European Space Agency (ESA) guided program for a decentralized organization for the operations and support of European facilities and payloads in the Columbus Orbiting Facility (COF) on the International Space Station (ISS). In this structure you have various levels of responsibility:

• Facility Responsible Centers (FRC): The FRC is responsible for the overall facility, for ISS mainly a facility in a typical ISS rack. Examples for such facilities are the Fluid Science Lab (FSL), European Physiology Module (EPM), Biolab, Material Science Lab (MSL), EXPRESS Pallet, Atomic Clock Ensemble in Space (ACES) or the European Drawer Rack (EDR).
• Facility Support Center (FSC): The FSC is responsible for facilities that go into or are closely associated with the large facilities as mentioned in the FRC bullet. Examples for such facilities are Pulmonary Function System (PFS), and probably various Shuttle middeck locker payloads that can be accommodated in EDR.
• Experiment Support Center (ESC): The ESC is even a more detailed support entity that is closely related to the actual experiments that can be performed in the rack or 'sub-rack' payloads. There could be several ESC for both FRC and FSC.
• User Home Base (UHB): The UHB is the lowest level of organization. This is not a center as the former entities but rather the limited infrastructure equipment / software available at a users own laboratory that enables her / him to monitor and maybe control an actual spaceflight experiment.

When you want to read more about this you may read a paper by Wittmann et al. "A Decentralized Operations Concept for the European Payloads on the International Space Station." presented at the 51^st IAF Conference, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil October 2-6, 2000. Download PDF version (142 kB).

The various national user support organizations (N-USOs) within Europe are: