MILAN \u2013 Spacewalks, often a highlight of space missions, are likely to change in the future as given advancements in robotics and teleoperations.<\/p>
Every time an astronaut steps out of a space vehicle, \u201cthat is an incredible, high-level-risk activity,\u201d Golda Nguyen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Aeronautics and Astronautics PhD student and National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate fellow, said Oct. 16 at the International Astronautical Congress here. \u201cWe need to critically think about the risk to human life and the value return for assigning humans to do activities.\u201d<\/p>
Nguyen, whose research focuses on intelligent systems that support human activity in space and on Earth, made the comment during an IAC panel called \u201cIntelligent Space: Big Data, Advanced Algorithms and Autonomous Robotics in Space.\u201d<\/p>
Panelists discussed the potential benefits of AI for space operations as well as challenges like the need for powerful space-based computers and extensive training datasets.<\/p>
\u201cMy vision for the future includes spacecraft that fly around and dock with each other, autonomously refueling, repairing or removing space debris, delivering and receiving cargo,\u201d said Kirk Hovell, co-founder and chief technology officer of Obruta, a Canadian startup focused on spaceflight autonomy. \u201cI predict hundreds of spacecraft dockings per day. The way we get there is through autonomy and AI. Making spacecraft fly themselves is a transformational technology, and the foundation upon which the in-orbit economy will be built.\u201d<\/p>
During exploration missions, robots could provide the necessary infrastructure. <\/p>
For example, \u201cmodular, reconfigurable robots\u201d working alone or with astronauts could construct habitats, move cargo, build rocket launchers and landing pads,\u201d said Shreya Santra, Tokyo University assistant professor of aerospace engineering. \u201cSmart autonomous systems have the capability to improve the efficiency and speed while minimizing the risk and cost involved with planetary missions. However, there are a lot of challenges in designing these intelligent systems, including designing robust controllers for power-efficient, stable AI algorithms.\u201d<\/p>
Since transporting cargo from Earth to space remains expensive, Santra talked about the importance of reconfigurable modules that \u201ccan adapt to the environment and adapt to the tasks that they have to do.\u201d<\/p>
One of the hurdles researchers often cite in applying AI to spaceflight programs is risk aversion.<\/p>
The space community \u201clikes things to work and likes flight heritage,\u201d said Jack Naylor, a PhD candidate with the Australian Centre for Field Robotics at the University of Sydney. Innovation, though, requires \u201cexperimentation, developing new systems, testing them rigorously and then being able to deploy them in much wider scale,\u201d Naylor said. For example, spacecraft will need powerful computers, sensors suited to the environment and the capability \u201cto leverage all that data that we can collect,\u201d he added.<\/p>
Massive datasets are required to train machine-learning models.<\/p>
\u201cIf we want autonomous robots and advanced algorithms, we need big data,\u201d Hovell said.<\/p>
While there is not much training data for autonomous spacecraft docking, \u201cthe amount of data collected during each mission is enormous.\u201d<\/p>
With each new docking missions, sensors, cameras and GPS-equipped devices capture \u201ctremendous amounts of data, which can all be fed into advanced systems for training,\u201d Hovell said. \u201cAnd the more of these autonomous operations we do, the larger our bucket of data grows and the better that our autonomous robots can become.\u201d<\/p>
Free Earth-observation datasets from the European Space Agency, NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey have helped organizations around the world develop object-detection platforms. Many other types of space-related data owned by companies or government agencies are not shared widely.<\/p>
\u201cThe contribution of the law, I believe, lies in enabling and sharing of information, sharing of data, cooperation,\u201d said Dmitra Stefoudi, assistant professor of space law at Leiden University in the Netherlands. \u201cWe need a little bit more work to remove some of those restrictions while preserving, of course, commercial interests.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MILAN \u2013 Spacewalks, often a highlight of space missions, are likely to change in the future as given advancements in robotics and teleoperations. Every time an astronaut steps out of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10917,"featured_media":507267,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5680,4161],"tags":[2207,1358,7649,5036,12852,12853,12854],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[986],"class_list":["post-507266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai","category-news-archive","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-iac","tag-leiden-university","tag-massachusetts-institute-of-technology","tag-obruta","tag-tokyo-university","tag-university-of-sydney-2","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n