Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
immediately to conditions and circumstances, would not have the long wait
times for communications, or for human recalculation and discussion of the
next moves. Until recently, there was not enough computational power on-
board spacecraft or robots to run the software needed to implement the
needed autonomy. Microprocessors with requisite radiation-hardening for use
in space missions now have greatly increased computing power, which means
these technologies can be added to space missions giving them much greater
capabilities than were previously possible.
This topic discusses the basics of spaceflight and ground system software
and the enabling technologies to achieve autonomous and autonomic missions.
This chapter gives examples of current and near-term missions to illustrate
some of the challenges that are being faced in doing new science and explo-
ration. It also describes why autonomy in missions is needed not only from
an operations standpoint, but also from a cost standpoint. The chapter ends
with an overview of what autonomy and autonomicity are and how they differ
from each other, as well as from simple automation.
1.1 Direction of New Space Missions
Many of the planned future NASA missions will use multiple spacecraft to
accomplish their science and exploration goals. While enabling new science
and exploration, multispacecraft and advanced robotic missions, along with
the more powerful instruments they carry, create new challenges in the ar-
eas of communications, coordination, and ground operations. More powerful
instruments will produce more data to be downlinked to mission control cen-
ters. Multispacecraft missions with coordinated observations will mean greater
complexity in mission control. Controlling operations costs of such missions
will present significant challenges, likely entailing streamlining of operations
with fewer personnel required to control a spacecraft.
The following missions that have been recently launched or that will be
launched in the near future illustrate the types of missions NASA is planning.
1.1.1 New Millennium Program's Space Technology 5
The New Millennium Program's (NMP) Space Technology 5 (ST5) [
171
]is
a technology mission that was launched in March of 2006 with a 90 day mis-
sion life. The goal of the mission was to demonstrate approaches to reduce the
weight, size, and, therefore, cost of missions while increasing their capabilities.
The science it accomplished was mapping the intensity and direction of mag-
netic fields within the inner magnetosphere of the earth. To accomplish this,
had a magnetometer onboard to measure the earth's magnetosphere simulta-
neously from different positions around the earth. This allowed scientists to
determine the effects on the earth's magnetic field due to the solar wind and
other phenomena.
