Mission planning for space-based surveillance with the space-based visiblesensor

The Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) satellite was built and launched to ma ke phenomenological measurements of backgrounds in space and targets under realistic scenarios. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lincoln Lab oratory built a broadband visible wavelength sensor called the Space-Based Visible (SBV) sensor that is on the satellite. The primary motivation for t he SBV sensor has been to demonstrate surveillance of satellites from a spa ce-based platform. Historically, space surveillance has been conducted from ground-based sensors, The satellite was primarily designed for experiments with a long lead time for planning. However, it was essential to retain th e flexibility to plan the actual space surveillance data collection events at the daily level while still abiding by the six-week planning cycle. Addi tionally, the system had to be automated to reduce the operational cost. Si gnificant challenges were the design of a language for experiment design, t he monitoring of the resource cost of experiments, and the significant poin ting constraints on the satellite. The mission planning system that was set up for space surveillance experiments and its operational success are desc ribed.