Program

Combined Artificial Intelligence for Space/Intl Workshop on Planning and Scheduling for Space Schedule

IWPSS Invited Speaker

Automated Scheduling for NASA’s Deep Space Network

Mark D. Johnston

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

California Institute of Technology

This talk describes the Deep Space Network (DSN) scheduling engine (DSE) component of a new scheduling system being deployed for NASA’s Deep Space Network. The DSE provides core automation functionality for scheduling the network, including the interpretation of scheduling requirements expressed by users, their elaboration into tracking passes, and the resolution of conflicts and constraint violations. The DSE incorporates both systematic search- and repair- based algorithms, used for different phases and purposes in the overall system. It has been integrated with a web application that provides DSE functionality to all DSN users through a standard web browser, as part of a peer-to-peer schedule negotiation process for the entire network. The system has been deployed operationally and is in routine use, and is in the process of being extended to support long-range planning and forecasting and near real-time scheduling.

Mark D. Johnston is a principal scientist in the Planning and Execution Systems section at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. His research interests include reactive planning and scheduling, multiobjective optimization, and evolutionary algorithms. His background is in physics, with a bachelor’s degree from Princeton and Ph. D. from MIT. He has worked on a wide range of planning and scheduling technologies in both space and commercial domains, and is the originator of the Spike scheduling system, used for Hubble Space Telescope as well as a number of other space- and ground-based observatories. He currently leads the JPL Deep Space Network Service Management development team, and also the SCaN network integration project increment 1 team.