Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
particular, the role of models in converting the satellite-produced in-
formation into useful products for environmental characterization and
prediction will become more crucial.
The above statements in the NASA strategic plan project the increasing
importance of mission autonomy and autonomicity. In the first quote, the
strategic plan notes that autonomous systems are needed to make future mis-
sions possible and make them affordable. It further indicates the need for
adding intelligence to robotics and reducing mission risks through autonomy,
by, for example, alerting the crew to failures, and automatically reconfiguring
(autonomicity) as mission conditions change.
The second quoted passage describes the planned sensor web in terms of
constellations of smart satellites, with the prospect of automatic science of
opportunity, and with heterogenous systems working together to make up
the sensor web. Again, all of these will require autonomous and autonomic
systems.
With the new mission concepts that are taking shape, an excellent op-
portunity now exists to insert autonomy and autonomicity, as well as agent
technologies, into these missions. Since these technologies make many of the
missions feasible, the science community is now looking to the artificial in-
telligence and agent software community to implement these ideas in future
flight software.
This topic has attempted to provide background on NASA ground and
space systems and exploration thrusts, and has presented autonomy and au-
tonomicity as a technological means to enhance space mission usefulness, cost
effectiveness, and functionality. The motivation behind this topic has been to
help others direct their research and development into this area, as well as to
stimulate future missions to adopt more autonomy and autonomicity, thereby
enhancing new exploration and making scientific discovery more productive.
