Satellite Model for Imagery Collection Planning
- Paper number
IAC-07-B4.3.03
- Author
Dr. Haim Shyldkrot, Israel Aerospace Industries LTD, Israel
- Year
2007
- Abstract
In recent years a growing interest in Imagery Collection Planning (CP) systems has developed aiming to maximize the imagery collection from limited satellite resources[1]. These systems must take into account the imagery ordering customer's requirements such as time of acquisition, resolution, and scan geometry, and the satellite constraints and resources availability in order to generate optimized collection plans. Therefore, satellite manufacturers are requested to provide satellite models to be incorporated in the ICP systems. In the proposed paper, the satellite model approach developed at IAI/MBT to meet the requirements of the ICP capability of the Mission Planning system will be presented. Since a satellite model is required for each of the IAI/MBT imaging satellites, a robust design was adopted to support the EROS family of electro-optical imagers. The model checks the feasibility of maneuvers between scans and calculates scan parameters and duration, as well as, satellite resources consumption and constraints violation. In addition to answers to single operation queries, the model validates imagery collection plans consisting of a series of maneuvers and scans in a given activity window. For valid plans, the model generates a data file to be transferred to the command generation system. The model is implemented as a set of DLL’s and associated header files that can be integrated into the ICP function. Each satellite has a separate library adapted to the specific satellite, however, the same services are provided by each library and the same interfaces are preserved. This assures a smooth integration of a new satellite model with the ICP. The model may be integrated both with manual and automatic planning systems. The functions in the library are “memory-less” in the sense that functions may be called in any order. Data transfer between the functions of the model is achieved through the ICP functions that use the model library. The advantage of this approach is that there are no assumptions in the model regarding the planning algorithm and it can be easily used in various modes. The run time performance of the model is excellent as the core functions like scan and maneuver run for typical cases less than a millisecond on a standard Pentium 4 computer. This meets the demanding requirements of automatic planning algorithms that check millions of possibilities in the process of generating the optimal plans. The performance was achieved by algorithmic improvements rather than code optimization. [1] A. F. Herz and A. Mignogna, Collection Planning for the OrbView-3 High Resolution Imaging Satellite, Space Ops 2006, June 2006, Rome, Italy.
- Abstract document