Abstract
The balloon-borne Planetary Atmosphere Spectroscopic Telescope (PAST), China’s first planetary optical remote-sensing project, will be launched for testing and conducting scientific flights during 2021 and 2022. Images of the planetary atmosphere and plasma in ultraviolet and visible wavelengths will be used to investigate the diversity of the planetary space environment in the solar system and their different drivers. Because simultaneous observation of multiple target planets in the solar system is possible, effective observation scheduling is critical to acquire high scientific merit spectroscopic imaging data. Herein, we demonstrate an automatic scheduling tool (AST) to aid the planning of observation schedules. The AST is primarily based on a planetary ephemeris and is realized on the basis of the geometrical information and optical requirements of the telescope. The temporal variations of the planetary reference frames can also be obtained to assist in the positioning and data processing of the telescope. As a part of the Chinese deep-space exploration plan, several ground-based planetary optical telescopes will be constructed in China in the future. With the use of the proposed AST, such telescopes can achieve maximum efficiency.
Highlights
The balloon-borne Planetary Atmosphere Spectroscopic Telescope (PAST) is an indispensable part of the Scientific Experiment System in Near Space (SENSE) Program [1,2].The SENSE Program, which was initiated in 2018, is a five-year Strategic Priority ResearchProgram of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
The current version of the automatic scheduling tool (AST) is written in the interactive data language (IDL), and the “SPICE” [9,10] library is included to derive the positions of celestial bodies based on the DE430 ephemeris [11]
The AST proposed in this study can provide observation windows based on geometry constraints and day view score (DVS) for scheduling observations
Summary
The balloon-borne Planetary Atmosphere Spectroscopic Telescope (PAST) is an indispensable part of the Scientific Experiment System in Near Space (SENSE) Program [1,2]. The investigation of planetary environment diversity and various drivers can be conducted with the help of the PAST and other similar devices. These observations will be essential for protecting human life, technical systems, and global infrastructure and will aid our understanding of the past and future of the Earth. In the future, an intelligent observation-scheduling tool will be required for the “Quaternity” planetary optical remote sensing system that integrates ground-based, balloon-borne, space-based, and Moon-based optical remote sensing for supporting the Chinese national deep-space exploration plan.
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