Fit observations into shared resources

An observation can consume energy, create data, require a pointing direction and change temperature. A communication pass can compete for pointing while freeing recorder space. Mission planning therefore connects activities across multiple budgets. A schedule that fits on a calendar may still be impossible for the spacecraft.

Some resources are rates and others are stored amounts. Power is an instantaneous rate of energy use; watt-hours measure accumulated energy. Data generation rate describes how fast storage fills. Mixing these quantities can make an apparently balanced plan wrong even before operational details are considered.

Imagine a fictional instrument using 20 watts for 1.5 hours. Its energy demand is 30 watt-hours. If the available science allocation is 50 watt-hours, 20 remain for other permitted science activities. This arithmetic leaves out other spacecraft demands because the example explicitly treats a science-only allocation.

Now suppose the recorder starts with 6 gigabytes occupied, holds 20 gigabytes and the observation adds 8. It will hold 14 gigabytes afterward, leaving 6. A later plan to add another 8 before downlink would not fit. Downloading later does not prevent an earlier overflow; ordering matters.

Check the sequence of storage states

A robust plan states which observations are essential, which can be shortened or skipped and which constraints cannot be violated. These choices help the team respond when a contact is lost or an activity takes longer than expected. Unallocated capacity is meaningful only when its purpose and availability are clear.

For practice, change one assumption in the fictional schedule: the downlink is cancelled. Recalculate storage before approving more observations. Then ask whether a different pointing plan changes energy or temperature. The exercise shows why resource planning is a connected problem, not a set of independent numbers attached after the science schedule is finished.