A market-based conflict resolution approach for satellite mission planning

A market-based system has been developed to assist in mission planning for an Earth orbiting synthetic aperture radar mission. This approach was chosen over more traditional systems based on a functional model used to compare the market-based system with a human-expert, thematic and geometric approaches. The market-based system enables participants to signal demands for spacecraft resources needed for data acquisitions by establishing a currency and "worth" for a particular data acquisition request. We compared a serial draft approach to two market-based approaches; a simple market and a priority market. The market systems utilized a planning period which ended when the value of the time-ordered data acquisition plan did not increase by 10% of the value of the previous round. The market-based approaches were superior to a serial draft approach and that a priority market had a 2% greater value than a simple market.