Staged Fine-Tuning of Large Language Models for Multi-Level Space Station Operation Mission Planning

Abstract

Space Station Operation Mission Planning (SSOMP) requires coordinated decisions across long-term activity allocation, mid-term logistics optimization, and short-term execution scheduling and is a key component of autonomous mission operations for high-precision space missions. Existing optimization methods have achieved substantial progress at individual planning levels, but their dependence on problem-specific models, limited support for semantic review of decision rationale, and computational cost restrict their adaptability to multi-level planning scenarios. This paper proposes a Large Language Model (LLM)-assisted framework for multi-level SSOMP. The framework combines Staged Fine-Tuning (Staged-FT), Reflective Constraint–Repair Prompting (RCRP), and LLM-Guided Evolutionary Variation (LGEV). Staged-FT uses a Cognitive-Load-Theory-informed curriculum with Low-Rank Adaptation to adapt general-purpose LLMs to SSOMP domain knowledge. RCRP couples a Deterministic Rule Engine with LLM-based semantic repair to improve hard constraint satisfaction. LGEV embeds the fine-tuned LLM into NSGA-III as a fitness-aware variation operator for multi-objective activity allocation. Three case studies are conducted on literature-derived benchmark scenarios of logistics optimization, emergency re-planning, and activity allocation with logistics design, corresponding to Flight Increment Planning, Short-Term Execution Planning, and Overall Operation Planning, respectively. Results show that Staged-FT produces solutions close to traditional algorithms, RCRP achieves full hard constraint satisfaction in the emergency re-planning and logistics planning cases, and LGEV reduces the convergence generations of NSGA-III while improving Pareto-front quality. The framework provides a constraint-aware approach with explicit reasoning traces that can support expert review of AI-assisted planning for autonomous space mission operations.