Mission planning for space-based surveillance with the space-based visible sensor

The Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) satellite was built and launched to make phenomenological measurements of backgrounds in space and targets under realistic scenarios. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lincoln Laboratory built a broadband visible wavelength sensor called the Space-Based Visible (SBV) sensor that is on the satellite. The primary motivation for the SBV sensor has been to demonstrate surveillance of satellites from a space-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 the flexibility to plan the actual space surveillance data collection events at the daily level while still abiding by the six-week planning cycle. Additionally, the system had to be automated to reduce the operational cost. Significant challenges were the design of a language for experiment design, the monitoring of the resource cost of experiments, and the significant pointing constraints on the satellite. The mission planning system that was set up for space surveillance experiments and its operational success are described.