Scheduling astronomy observations for the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) requires assessing tradeoffs between the percentage of scheduled observations, the Line Of Sight Water Vapor (LOS-WV) achieved on those observations, and fuel consumption. This trade space is complex, depending on time of year and specific mixes of observations, and cannot be effectively analyzed by hand. We demonstrate the complexity of these tradeoffs and show that an Automated Flight Planner (AFP) is a crucial part of trade space analysis during flight planning.


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    Airborne infrared astronomy

    Aumann, H. H. | NTRS | 1973


    Comments about observing conditions for UV astronomy aboard Spacelab

    Courtes, G. / Viton, M. / Simon, J. P. et al. | NTRS | 1987


    Infrared astronomy

    Woolf, N. J. | NTRS | 1966


    Comments about observing conditions for UV astronomy aboard spacelab

    Courtes, G. / Viton, M. / Simon, J.P. et al. | Elsevier | 1987