Hierarchical satellite task scheduling system

An aerial scheduling system for deployment and operation on an aerial satellite, the areal satellite having multiple components, including sensors and communications equipment, and being operable in an aerial satellite system having multiple satellites, whose individual satellites communicate with, and are controlled by, terrestrial stations, each terrestrial station having at least one terrestrial scheduler with one or more computers, one or more storage devices, and telecommunications devices, said aerial scheduling system on said areal satellite comprising:

• an aerial scheduler having one or more processors and one or more storage devices,
• wherein at least one storage device is operative to store task instructions that are received from the terrestrial scheduler, and
• wherein at least one processor is operative to control the following on-board the aerial satellite:
• receive from the terrestrial scheduler a task instruction that is useable by the aerial scheduler to cause the aerial satellite to execute a set of objectives;
• process the task instruction to identify the set of objectives that have been assigned to the areal satellite;
• identify operations corresponding to the assigned objectives that are to be performed by components of the satellite;
• and
• schedule and execute operations involving configuring components of the satellite to accomplish the assigned objectives,
• wherein said set of objectives corresponds to a task to be performed using the aerial satellite and under control of the aerial scheduling system, said objectives being given a classification corresponding to one or more of the tasks to be performed using the aerial satellite, and being associated with resource parameters for executing the task to be performed using the aerial satellite, and
• wherein each objective included in the set of objectives is assigned a score based on the resource parameters, each score representing a prioritization of a corresponding objective from among the set of objectives.