Efficient Earth Observation Satellites Mission Planning with Quantum Algorithm

Earth observation satellites (EOS) play a crucial role in collecting data for applications like weather forecasting and disaster management. Optimizing EOS missions to capture high-priority targets within constraints such as storage, energy, and weather is challenging for traditional computing methods. Quantum computing shows promise in enhancing efficiency by exploring vast solution spaces for optimal schedules, even with complex constraints. This paper demonstrates the potential of a quantum algorithm to improve real-time EOS mission planning, maximizing high-priority target acquisition under resource limitations. Compared to classical algorithms like simulated annealing and Gurobi optimizer, the proposed quantum algorithm outperformed in selecting high-priority targets by 23.46%, executed faster than Gurobi by 39.09%, and successfully satisfied all constraints for all data.