Optimization criterion for spacecraft observation planning algorithms

Objectives . One of the critical tasks of space monitoring is the planning of observations due to the quality and amount of information obtained depending on how well the observation plan is developed. However, the selection of a method for planning spacecraft observations is hampered by a lack of unified criteria for comparing different planning algorithms. Therefore, the work sets out to develop planning quality criteria on the basis of physical observation principles based on radar, radiotechnical, and optical monitoring approaches in order to analytically determine their main parameters and check these parameters numerically. Methods . The proposed quality criteria are deterministic, limited in energy by signal strength and observation time. The limiting values of the quality criteria for fixed observation time are analytically determined. In order to obtain the values of the quality criteria for four scheduling algorithms, a computational experiment is carried out. Results . The proposed “weight–observation time” quality criterion is used to compare different observation planning algorithms that take into account spacecraft priority and total observation time. In order to account for the structure of the total observation time, the “weight–observation structure” criterion is introduced. It is analytically confirmed that the limited criteria values differ for different scheduling methods. The conducted numerical experiment is used to confirm the nature of the change of criteria for different planning methods and parameters included in the criteria. Conclusions . The proposed observation planning quality criteria, which are based on the physical observation principles by radiotechnical and optical means, are used to numerically compare the results of spacecraft observation planning to take into account the priority of observation, as well as observation time and structure (how many and how long are the intervals into which the total observation time is divided). The possibility of using the proposed “weight–observation time” and “weight–observation structure” criteria to compare different planning algorithms is confirmed by computational experiment. Therefore, it is reasonable to use the proposed criteria for optimization of scheduling algorithms or their numerical comparison for different satellite observation conditions.