A multiple asset scheduler for satellite data throughput and variable rate analysis

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) has developed a tool for generating representative schedules of satellite communication sessions to aid in architecture assessments and data throughput analyses. Essentially, the tool provides an efficient method to address the Multi-Satellite Scheduling Problem (MSSP), an example competitive resource allocation problem. The tool interacts with a commercially available simulation environment, Satellite Tool Kit (STK), using a custom developed MATLAB interface. This paper details the reasoning behind the development of the tool, provides a description of the genetic algorithms used in the tool, and discusses example applications of the tool in supporting the future development of space missions and NASA's space communications infrastructure.