Novel payload planning and scheduling approaches implemented for AstroSat mission

AstroSat is an astronomical observatory from India which is in a low earth orbit of 650 km altitude with a 6-degree inclination and has been functioning successfully in orbit for the last 5 years. The simultaneous observation by the payloads allows imaging of celestial sources in various wavebands that has resulted in scientific achievements which are published in various forum. Uniqueness of its orbit, and scientific objectives calls for a different type of scheduling approach and a hands-free automated tasking of payloads, on this satellite. Several software architectures involving a Centralized data-base called Mission Control And Proposals (MCAP) with the Scheduler, AstroSat Scheduler TeRminus for PAyLoads (ASTRAL), AstroSat Scheduler Software for OpeRaTions (ASSORT), Command Sequence Generation (CSG), AstroSat Schedule Viewer (ASV), Astroviewer and AstroSat Long Term Planner (ASPlanner) were developed and used for celestial source observations. This paper describes briefly the scheduling approaches, their goals, utilization, lessons learnt and improvements carried out over the last 5 years.