Planning and Scheduling of Earth Observing Satellites

The roles and interactions of activity planning and scheduling for Earth Observing Satellites are based on factors such as mission objective, system assets and resources, system and spacecraft constraints, planning criteria, scheduling strategies, timelines, and desired level of automation and operator interaction. Activities are generalized into four categories: accomplish the mission objective, support the mission objective, manage the system resources, and maintain the system assets. This paper discusses factors that influence the planning and scheduling design and design complexities. Included is how the design addresses modeling of the spacecraft subsystems and states when incorporating spacecraft capabilities, constraints and operating guidelines.