Paper Session II-C - Astro: A Computer-Aided Scheduling Tool for Operational Satellite Control

Range scheduling for satellite control presents a classical problem of a data intensive task with a very small allowance for human error. On any given day, interrelated information depicting 600-1000 entries of satellite visibilities and scheduled range support must be interpreted and used to make decisions that can be critical to the survival of valuable orbital assets. Given an environment which must account for unexpected equipment outages and satellite anomalies, the scheduling task can exceed acceptable workload levels. Thus, range scheduling for satellite control can benefit greatly from computer assistance and a human factors approach to the task. This paper describes the development, user evaluation, and operational activation of a semi-automated network range scheduling system incorporating a synergistic humancomputer interface consisting of a large screen color display, voice input/output, a sonic penn pointing device, a touchscreen color CRT, and a standard keyboard. The development and operational use of ASTRO represent the first major improvement in almost 30 years to the range scheduling task