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A.F. Berman, W.P. Blair, H.M. Calvani (Johns Hopkins University), J. Caplinger, M.N. England (Computer Sciences Corp.), B.A. Roberts (Johns Hopkins University)
The Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) was launched into a low Earth orbit on June 24, 1999 and has been exploring the far-ultraviolet universe (905 to 1187 Angstroms) with a spectral resolution of approximately 20,000. FUSE is in a 760 km circular orbit inclined 25 degrees to the equator. Primary contact with the satellite is through a dedicated ground station antenna at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, which provides 6-7 contacts of about 12 minutes each. Operations on the satellite proceed autonomously based on uplinked commands that are stored onboard.
The Mission Planning team at Johns Hopkins University is responsible for the efficient planning and scheduling of all science, calibration, and engineering activities onboard the observatory. We will present an overview of the planning process, including descriptions of orbital and spacecraft constraints and illustrations of the tools developed to handle mission planning functions.
This work is supported by NASA contract NAS5-32985 to the Johns Hopkins University.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: aberman@pha.jhu.edu