NEPTUNE: A new expert planning tool for users in a network environment

MARS (mission activities and resources scheduler) is a planning and scheduling tool for both automatic and interactive generation of spacecraft timelines of realistic complexity, which has been extensively tested, e.g. for HERMES, EURECA, or Spacelab mission planning. In its new version it has been extended to include full distributed mission planning capability (as required for the COLUMBUS mission planning scenario) under the ESA contract NEPTUNE (new expert planning tool for users in a network environment). This paper describes the main features of the planning tool MARS in its new NEPTUNE version and sketches its applicability to the distributed mission planning scenario and for other (non-space) domains.