MARS, Mission activities and resource scheduler, application

The complexity of current and future space missions requires sophisticated, intelligent tools to support the mission preparation and mission execution tasks. The authors started in 1987 the development of the MARS (mission activities and resource scheduler) system. The give a short introduction to the MARS system and report some of the experiences gathered with MARS applications to scheduling problems of realistic dimensions and of different domains. For example, MARS was used for specific space mission applications like dynamic payload accommodation and design evaluation, as it was done by simulating an autonomous system based on the EURECA spacecraft. Additionally MARS is in use for commercial production planning purposes. It is utilized for the integrated manufacturing of the ARIANE second stage and liquid boosters at ERNO. In order to optimize this process the authors are working on interfacing MARS directly to a conventional production management system which will then provide all necessary information for the scheduler