Spitzer operations: scheduling the out years

Abstract

Spitzer Warm Mission operations have remained robust and exceptionally efficient since the cryogenic mission ended in mid-2009. The distance to the observatory now exceeds 1 AU, making telecommunications increasingly difficult; however, analysis has shown that two-way communication could be maintained through at least 2017 with minimal loss in observing efficiency. The science program continues to emphasize the characterization of exoplanets, time domain studies, and deep surveys, all of which can impose interesting scheduling constraints. Recent changes have significantly improved on-board data compression, which both enables certain high volume observations and reduces Spitzer's demand for competitive Deep Space Network resources.

Spitzer warm mission: maximizing the science return in the extended mission phase

“…The nominal five-six week scheduling process in shown here. The observatory scheduling is described in detail in the references [5] and [6].…”

“…Additional time was added to the early part of the scheduling process on the ground for warm operations. See [5] and [6] for more details on the scheduling process. A schematic of the process is shown in Figure 2.…”