Using Automated Scheduling for Mission Design: A Case Study for EMIT

The Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source InvesTigation (EMIT) is an Earth Ventures-Instrument (EVI-4) mission to map the surface mineralogy of arid dust source regions. EMIT used automated scheduling technology to analyze aspects of the mission design. The automated scheduling technology was used to construct schedules which were then automatically analyzed with respect to science acquired. These analyses can be performed for a range of spacecraft hardware configurations, observation strategies, and science requirements. By studying the effects of changes on the above inputs, better hardware configurations, observation strategies, and science requirements can be formulated. The use of a pointing mirror on EMIT was under consideration, and this analysis aided in determining whether or not to keep it as part of the design of the instrument. Clouds will also have a large impact on the coverage of science targets achievable by the mission. Analysis was done on how clouds could impact the coverage achievable as well as the data volume. This analysis with clouds also aided in determining the coverage criteria for the mission. It was necessary to find a criteria that was achievable with some margin as well as satisfies the science goals of the mission.