Here are few ways how AI can help us venture in space
From designing missions to clearing Earth’s orbit of junk, here are a few ways artificial intelligence can help us venture further in space.
Artificial intelligence has been making waves in recent years, enabling us to solve problems faster than traditional computing could ever allow. Advances in AI have allowed us to make progress in all kinds of disciplines – and these are not limited to applications on this planet. From designing missions to clearing Earth’s orbit of junk, here are a few ways artificial intelligence can help us venture further in space.
Astronaut assistants
A recently developed virtual assistant can potentially detect any dangers in lengthy space missions such as changes in the spacecraft atmosphere – for example increased carbon dioxide – or a sensor malfunction that could be potentially harmful. It would then alert the crew with suggestions for inspection.
An AI assistant called Cimon was flown to the international space station (ISS) in December 2019, where it is being tested for three years. Eventually, Cimon will be used to reduce astronauts’ stress by performing tasks they ask it to do. NASA is also developing a companion for astronauts aboard the ISS, called Robonaut, which will work alongside the astronauts or take on tasks that are too risky for them.
Mission design and planning
Planning a mission to Mars is not an easy task, but artificial intelligence can make it easier. Researchers are working on the idea of a design engineering assistant to reduce the time required for initial mission design which otherwise takes many human work hours.
“Daphne” is another example of an intelligent assistant for designing Earth observation satellite systems. Daphne is used by systems engineers in satellite design teams. It makes their job easier by providing access to relevant information including feedback as well as answers to specific queries.
Satellite data processing
Earth observation satellites generate tremendous amounts of data. This is received by ground stations in chunks over a large period of time, and has to be pieced together before it can be analysed. While there have been some projects to do basic satellite imagery analysis on a very small scale, artificial intelligence can come to our rescue for detailed satellite data analysis.For the sheer volume of data received, AI has been very effective in processing it smartly.
Space debris
One of the biggest space challenges of the 21st century is how to tackle space debris. According to ESA, there are nearly 34,000 objects bigger than 10cm which pose serious threats to existing space infrastructure. There are some innovative approaches to deal with the menace, such as designing satellites to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere if they are deployed within the low Earth orbit region making them disintegrate completely in a controlled way.
Another approach is to avoid any possible collisions in space, preventing the creation of any debris. In a recent study, researchers developed a method to design collision avoidance manoeuvres using machine-learning (ML) techniques.
Navigation systems
On Earth, we are used to tools such as Google Maps which use GPS or other navigation systems. But there is no such a system for other extraterrestrial bodies, for now.
In 2018, a team of researchers from NASA in collaboration with Intel developed an intelligent navigation system using AI to explore the planets. They trained the model on the millions of photographs available from various missions and created a virtual Moon map.
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