JOINT OPERATIONS PLANNING FOR THE MIDCOURSE SPACE EXPERIMENT SATELLITE

The Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) satellite is intended to gather b roadband phenomenology data on missiles, plumes, naturally occurring E ar th-limb backgrounds, and deep-space backgrounds. In addition the MS X will be used to conduct functional demonstrations of space-based spa ce surveillance. The Applied Physics Laboratory is charged with the de tailed operations planning required to implement all of the experiment s run on the MSX satellite, except the space surveillance experiments. The nonsurveillance operations are generally amenable to being define d months ahead of time and being scheduled on a monthly basis. Lincoln Laboratory is charged with implementing the space surveillance demons trations on the satellite, The planning timelines for these demonstrat ions are fundamentally different from those for the other experiments in that the specific experiment sequence and pointing must be refined shortly before execution. This allocation of responsibilities to diffe rent organizations implies the need for a joint mission planning syste m for conducting space surveillance demonstrations. This paper details the iterative, joint planning system, based on passing responsibility for generating commands for surveillance operations from the Applied Physics Laboratory to Lincoln Laboratory for specific scheduled operat ions. The joint planning system, including the generation of a budget for spacecraft resources to be used for surveillance events, has been successfully demonstrated during ground testing and is being validated to support launch within the gear. The planning system developed for the MSX satellite forms a model possibly applicable to developing dist ributed mission planning systems for other multiuse satellites.