The Techsat-21 autonomous space science agent
Steve Chien, Paul Zetocha, Ross H. Wainwright, Pete Klupar, Jim Van Gaasbeck, Pat G. Cappelaere, Dean Oswald, Rob Sherwood, Gregg Rabideau, Rebecca Castaño, Ashley Gerard Davies, Michael C. Burl, Russell Knight, T. Stough, Joe Roden · 2002
The Autonomous Sciencecraft Experiment (ASE) will fly onboard the Air Force TechSat-21 constellation of three spacecraft scheduled for launch in 2004. ASE uses onboard continuous planning, robust task and goal-based execution, model-based mode identification and reconfiguration, and onboard machine learning and pattern recognition to radically increase science return by enabling intelligent downlink selection and autonomous retargeting. In this paper we discuss how these AI technologies are synergistically integrated in a hybrid multi-layer control architecture to enable a virtual spacecraft science agent. We also describe our working software prototype and preparations for flight.