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ECOSTRESS
NASA's ECOSTRESS mission seeks to better understand how much water plants need and how they respond to stress. Two processes show how plants use water: evaporation and transpiration. Evaporation of water from the soil surrounding plants affects how much water the plants can use. Transpiration is the process of plants losing water through tiny pores in their leaves. ECOSTRESS measures the temperature of plants and land to understand combined evaporation and transpiration, known as evapotranspiration. Read more about ECOSTRESS
Mars2020 Background

Mars 2020
The Mars 2020 rover is scheduled for launch in the summer of 2020 and arrival at Mars in February 2021. The current plan is to have an onboard scheduler help the rover independently adapt to execution variances on the surface of Mars, enabling the rover to operate more efficiently. Specifically, if activities finish earlier or later than expected, the onboard scheduler will allow the rover to extend or add activities to perform more science, or delay activities to be performed later. Read more about Mars 2020
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Eagle Eye
The Eagle Eye project is a specialized ASPEN model that focuses on planning and scheduling observational coverage for space-based, steerable 2D framing instruments. This is a relatively young research area because most of the older space-based imaging sensors are 1D pushbrooms. Pushbroom sensors generate an image by dragging a 1D line across the target, like a scanner. 2D framing instruments acquire a whole rectangle at the same time, like a digital camera. The Eagle Eye model was originally created for the proposed Eagle Eye ISS-mounted gimballed telescope, but can also be used to schedule observations for body-fixed instruments if the scheduler is allowed to steer the bus. Read more about Eagle Eye
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Super Intelligence Group

The Super Intelligence Group performs basic research in the areas of automated planning and scheduling, with applications to science analysis, spacecraft operations, mission analysis, deep space network operations, and space transportation systems.

The Super Intelligence Group is organized administratively into two groups: Super Intelligence, Integrated Planning and Execution and Super Intelligence, Observation Planning and Analysis.

Projects People Papers Press
Deep Space Network antenna dishes.
NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) provides communnications and other services for planetary exploration missions as well as other missions beyond geostationary orbit, supporting both NASA and international users. The Service Scheduling Software supports automated scheduling of DSN antenna. At the present time, a typical week includes between 400 and 500 scheduled activities on the antennas of the three DSN complexes.
DSN SSS
Illustration of a spacecraft.
An autonomous spacecraft must balance long-term and short-term considerations. It must perform purposeful activities that ensure long-term science and engineering goals are achieved and ensure that it maintains positive resource margins. However, it must also respond in a timely fashion to a somewhat dynamic and unpredictable environment. CASPER uses iterative repair to support continuous modification and updating of a current working plan in light of changing operating context.
CASPER
Yellow autonomous ocean glider floating at the ocean surface.
Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) is a future NASA/CNES mission set to launch in 2021, aimed at better understanding Earth’s oceans and its terrestrial surface waters. SWOT will conduct a global survey of Earth’s surface water with unprecedented resolution, allowing scientists to better understand subjects from water supply to oceanic circulation to climate change.
SWOT Station Keeping