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Tools for Coordinated Planning Between ObservatoriesWith the realization of NASA's era of great observatories, there are now more than three space-based telescopes operating in different wavebands. This situation provides astronomers with a unique opportunity to simultaneously observe with multiple observatories. Yet scheduling multiple observatories simultaneously is highly inefficient when compared to observations using only one single observatory. Thus, programs using multiple observatories are limited not due to scientific restrictions, but due to operational inefficiencies. At present, multi-observatory programs are conducted by submitting observing proposals separately to each concerned observatory. To assure that the proposed observations can be scheduled, each observatory's staff has to check that the observations are valid and meet all the constraints for their own observatory; in addition, they have to verify that the observations satisfy the constraints of the other observatories. Thus, coordinated observations require painstaking manual collaboration among the observatory staff at each observatory. Due to the lack of automated tools for coordinated observations, this process is time consuming, error-prone, and the outcome of the requests is not certain until the very end. To increase observatory operations efficiency, such manpower intensive processes need to undergo re-engineering. To overcome this critical deficiency, Goddard Space Flight Center's Advanced Architectures and Automation Branch is developing a prototype effort called the Visual Observation Layout Tool (VOLT). The main objective of the VOLT project is to provide visual tools to help automate the planning of coordinated observations by multiple astronomical observatories, as well as to increase the scheduling probability of all observations.
Document ID
20010019756
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
Authors
Jones, Jeremy (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Fishman, Mark (Commerce One, Inc. Laurel, MD United States)
Grella, Vince (Commerce One, Inc. Laurel, MD United States)
Kerbel, Uri (Commerce One, Inc. Laurel, MD United States)
Maks, Lori (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Misra, Dharitri (Commerce One, Inc. Laurel, MD United States)
Pell, Vince (Commerce One, Inc. Laurel, MD United States)
Powers, Edward I.
Date Acquired
September 7, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2001
Subject Category
Astronomy
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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