Scheduling the Unexpected: A Multi-Messenger, Multi-Mission Observation Planning Toolkit for Ground and Space Based Telescopes

The adventure of multi-messenger astronomy (MMA) began with the direct detection of gravitational waves (GWs) by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) and Virgo from the binary neutron star merger GW170817, its short gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglow, and an optical/infrared kilonova counterpart, AT2017gfo. This kilonova is driven by the radioactive decay of r-process elements in highly neutron-rich, unbound matter that can heat the ejecta and power a thermal ultraviolet/optical/near-infrared transient. This new messenger provides information crucial to understanding the physical processes governing many sources, including the coalescence of two neutron stars and the collapse of massive stars. The 2020 Decadal Survey has identified MMA as a key priority. However, MMA events pose unique technical hurdles. The non-electromagnetic event is generally coarsely localized to a area of 100-1000 square degrees on the sky, making follow-up difficult. Thee coarse localizations lead to searches for optical counterparts where hundreds of transients are identified as candidates using the combined observations of many wide-field optical telescopes. Consequently, MMA events require promptly re-tasking facilities to tile large and irregular regions of interest. They also require balletic coordination of observatories in space and on the ground to acquire well-sampled data across the electromagnetic spectrum. NASA's missions play key roles in MMA, as both the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and Fermi have played key roles for electromagnetic follow-up of GW sources at high energies. Unfortunately, each mission develops MMA planning software individually. This duplication of effort is wasteful, and it inhibits coordinated observing with multiple facilities. Readying observatories at the time of the MMA event and the few moments after are critical to our understanding of the physics underlying the event, and therefore time is of the essence. To address this, we propose M4OPT, the Multi-Mission Multi-Messenger Observation Planning Toolkit package, which will address both issues by providing a common framework for projects to plan and execute MMA observations. M4OPT will be an open-source toolkit for multi-facility scheduling of astrophysics observing campaigns. It focuses on extremely rapid follow-up of GW, GRB, and neutrino events with heterogeneous networks of space and ground-based observatories. If funded, M4OPT will power unified multi-mission guest observer facilities and coordinated multi-facility targets of opportunity, synergistic with the Astrophysics Cross-Observatory Science Support (ACROSS) initiative, an initiative for a general observer facility focused on enabling Time Domain and Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (TDAMM) science that began in October 2022. M4OPT will reliably find globally optimal observing plans, which we expect to result in improvements of observing efficiency equivalent to tens of percent extensions of mission lifetime. For future missions, it will automate the currently manual and labor-intensive task of planning the science timeline, allowing future astrophysics satellites to respond to targets of opportunity within minutes, instead of hours. The finished product will be an enabling technology for ACROSS. We will foster a self-sustaining community of external contributors and users by developing the software within the open-source Astropy ecosystem with support from Astropy developers, who bring expertise in building high-impact, high-visibility open-source scientific software.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

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