Design and implementation of an experiment scheduling system for the ACTS satellite

The Advanced Communication Technology Satellite (ACTS) was launched on the 12th of September 1993 aboard STS-51. All events since that time have proceeded as planned with user operations commencing on December 6th, 1993. ACTS is a geosynchronous satellite designed to extend the state of the art in communication satellite design and is available to experimenters on a 'time/bandwidth available' basis. The ACTS satellite requires the advance scheduling of experimental activities based upon a complex set of resource, state, and activity constraints in order to ensure smooth operations. This paper describes the software system developed to schedule experiments for ACTS.