ESA’s satellite mission Genesis shall be a dynamic space geodetic observatory orbiting the Earth at a relatively high orbital altitude of 6000 km in a circular orbit, carrying instruments for all space geodetic techniques referenced to one another through carefully calibrated space ties.
The main objective of ESA’s Genesis mission is to contribute to the achievement of the accuracy and stability goals of the Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS) concerning the realization of the International Terrestrial Reference System (ITRS), aiming for 1 mm and 0.1 mm/year, respectively. To this aim, the Genesis satellite will provide in-orbit co-location of the four space geodetic techniques, i.e. Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR), Doppler Orbitography and Radiopositioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS), Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), on a highly calibrated and stable platform.
The exploitation of the Genesis mission requires significant upgrades and developments in scientific software packages to consistently process and rigorously combine the Genesis data of all four space geodetic techniques together with the data of the respective terrestrial ground networks of the International GNSS Service (IGS), the International Laser Ranging Service (ILRS), the International VLBI Service (IVS), and the International DORIS Service (IDS).
The AIUB is receiving funding from the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) for the national initiative Genesis-CH to support the preparation of the Bernese GNSS Software between 2026 and 2029 for the rigorous data processing and exploitation of ESA’s co-location in space mission Genesis, which is currently scheduled for launch in 2029. The Bernese GNSS Software is a scientific software package for high precision analyses of space geodetic data. It is developed since the 80ies at the Astronomical Institute of the University of Bern and meanwhile used by more than 800 institutions worldwide.
