EQUITABLE ALLOCATION OF EARTH OBSERVING SATELLITES RESOURCES

Large space projects like Earth Observing Satellites are often co-funded by several agents (countries, civil and military agencies, . . . ). Accordingly, their exploitation must take into account a specific requirement : the allocation of resources among the different agents must be equitable. But it must also be efficient, that is, the available resources must not be under-exploited. This article describes the problem of defining equitable and efficient allocations of resources, in the context of Earth Observing Satellites mission management. The context of Earth Observing Satellites is stated, then the problem is formally defined. Four different procedures are proposed to solve it, based on different ways of taking into account the inevitable trade-off between efficiency and equity.