Volume 5, Number 2     March/April 1997

  Advanced Technologies

DS1 Software Resembles HAL

ASA IS PREPARING THE MOST ADVANCED spacecraft artificial intelligence software yet. The software is being developed for launch aboard the New Millennium program's Deep Space One (DS1) spacecraft.

DS1 may sound like the fictional HAL 9000 main computer from the landmark science fiction tale 2001: A Space Odyssey. The robotic DS1 carries no crew and is much smaller than the spaceship in the movie. However, DS1's computer artificial intelligence program, known as the "Remote Agent," shares the same basic goal of operating and controlling a spacecraft with minimal human assistance.

	Artist's conception of NASA's Deep Space One (DS1) spacecraft scheduled for launch in 1998.

"We don't want to give the impression that Remote Agent is an artificial life form. However, the software will logically reason about the state of the spacecraft, and the Remote Agent will consider all of the consequences of its actions," said Kanna Rajan of NASA's Ames Research Center (ARC).

DS1 is the first scheduled mission in NASA's New Millennium program, which is designed to test and validate cutting-edge technology for the systems and instruments aboard future NASA science spacecraft. The Remote Agent development is a collaborative effort of ARC and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). "The goals of the Remote Agent development are to reduce the cost of exploration and to extend exploration to realms of space where no ground-controlled craft could venture," said Dr. Bob Rasmussen of JPL.

ARC's Barney Pell added, "Remote Agent should enable future spacecraft software to be more easily designed. The first version will be the hardest to write. After that, we can copy it for the next mission and make improvements rather than developing the software from scratch."

Given NASA's continuing efforts to develop many smaller, less expensive science aircraft, "we also need to perform each mission with less than a dozen ground controllers instead of the hundreds of people now needed to run a major planetary science mission," said Dr. Brian Williams, a DS1 team leader.

The "High Level Planning and Scheduling" part of Remote Agent will constantly look ahead to the schedule for several weeks of mission activities. "'Planner' is mostly concerned about scheduling spacecraft activities and distributing resources such as electrical power," said Dr. Nicola Muscettola, team leader for the planning software.

The model-based "Fault Protection" portion of Remote Agent, known as "Livingstone," functions as the mission's virtual chief engineer. Dr. P. Pandurang Nayak of ARC said, "If something should go wrong with the spacecraft, Livingstone would use the computer model of how the spacecraft should be behaving to diagnose failures and suggest recoveries."

The third part of Remote Agent is "Smart Executive." This portion of the software will act like an executive officer, issuing general commands to fly DS1. "The 'Executive' has to be able to execute the plans that are produced by the Planner and Livingstone," Pell said.

For more information, contact Doug Bernard at Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Call 818/354-0880.
Or contact Scott Sawyer at Ames Research Center. Call 415/604-6522.
Please mention you read about it in Innovation.