AN AUTOMATED SCIENCE OBSERVATION SCHEDULING SYSTEM FOR MESSENGER

摘要

Launched in August 2004, the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft will be the first to orbit Mercury, beginning in March 2011. The spacecraft carries seven science instruments and a radio experiment designed to study all aspects of Mercury and its environment. Scheduling science observations to meet all measurement objectives during the primary orbital phase of the mission is a considerable challenge due to the thermally harsh environment and restricted viewing opportunities. The MESSENGER team therefore developed an integrated planning and commanding system, MESSENGER SciBox, to simulate the entire orbital-phase observation plan, evaluate a variety of scheduling strategies, anticipate foreseeable contingencies, analyze their impacts, and develop mitigation strategies, all before orbit insertion. In this paper we describe the architecture of the automated scheduling system, which is the core of the MESSENGER SciBox.