Optimising Ground Stations Scheduling with a Genetic Algorithm

Ground stations (GS) are required during spacecraft (SC) operations to provide communications links between operation teams and the SC systems. Traditionally, the allocation of ground resources to SC is a highly constrained problem with sufficiently few solutions, where the process is conducted manually: stations are selected for communication support with certain SC for certain periods. There are many benefits in using a limited number of GSs and sharing the communication resource among different missions, other than install individual GS for them. To make the process adaptable in different mission scenarios, an automated process is needed to perform the scheduling and supervising resource allocation. The problem falls into the combinatorial optimisation area [1]. We propose to approach the problem with Genetic Algorithms (GAs), which have many applications on solving schedule problems [2]. This paper will present a method of approaching the solution of GS scheduling problem with a designated GA.