NIE Institute of Technology

No 50, Koorgalli Village, Hootagalli Industrial Area, Next to BEML, Mysuru- 570018,
Karnataka

AI FOR SPACE APPLICATION

Presented by: Guided by:

Rithwick H Kashyap Sri Madhusudhan H S
4NN15CS038 Asst. Professor, Dept of CSE
 •During the development of the Curiosity rover, the European
Space Agency (ESA) delivered a roadmap, in the framework of the
Aurora program.
•Their vision included the establishment of a human base on the
Mars, among several other advanced preparatory steps.
Introduction • At the same time, even more ambitious plans and missions are
being conceived in order to explore and colonize even farther
planets.
• In order to achieve this, consolidation of artificial intelligence
methods in space engineering is certainly an enabling factor.
 • Mars is 54.6M kilometers away from earth. And the round-trip
communication delay time varies between 6.5 minutes to 44
minutes. Mars Synodic period comes in every 2.1 years.
• Factors to be taken care of during the Synodic period:
o Health of the space craft
o Data dumping
Why AI?... • For such mission to happen, these rovers must be capable of
making autonomous decisions and communicate harmoniously
with each other.
• To achieve the desired results, NASA along with ESA has come up
with a solution consisting of Distributed Artificial Intelligence for
Swarm autonomy.
 •DAI is an approach to solving complex learning, planning, and
decision-making problems.
• We can perform large scale computation and spatial distribution
of computing resources. These properties allow it to solve
problems that require the processing of very large data sets.
Distributed AI •DAI systems are built to be adaptive to changes in the problem
definition or underlying data sets.
•DAI systems do not require all the relevant data to be aggregated
in a single location.
• The main topic of DAI for space applications is Swarm
Intelligence
Swarm
Intelligence • Swarm Intelligence can be defined as a system made by multiple
identical and noncognitive agents characterized by limited
sensing capabilities.
• This facilitates the interaction of the system with the
environment and other local systems.
•Swarm Intelligence is used to achieve synchronized movement of
satellites.
• Particle Swarm Optimization is the technology incorporated to
achieve autonomous movement of satellites in order to get
improved coverage.
Particle
Swarm
Optimization
Figure shows
orbital satellites
assembling a given
structure
Incoming Data From Mars

• Starting from 20th century numerous satellites have

been launched to orbit the red planet by various
space agencies.

• The data produced by these spacecrafts consists of

experiment data and housekeeping data.

•The minimum amount of data produced by each

satellite is 2Gb/day, and the maximum downlink
speed that can be achieved is 182kbps.
Data Dumping Problem
• The onboard system has limited memory to store
data of Science experiments.
• The HRSC can produce footages up to 1GB per
coverage.
• Housekeeping data might exceed beyond
expectation.
•This results in suspension of numerous scientific
experiments.
• The ESA came-up with MEXAR2, an AI program that
handles the data dumping process without human
intervention.
Solving via a Flow Network

• The core problem of data dumping can be solved by

reducing the timeline representation to an equivalent flow
network.

•This algorithm computes a maximal-flow solution through

the network that synthesizes a dump plan for the MEXAR2
for further process.
 •ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter is a mars orbiter that was launched
into the Martian orbit by ESA in collaboration with Roscosmos.
• Mexar2 was incorporated into the satellite's system to overcome
the data dumping problem.
• Mexar2 is an operational tool that the EMTGO mission planning
Mexar2 team uses in its daily planning process to produce a data
downlink plan and schedule.
•The tool is tightly integrated in the mission planning systems.
• Since its introduction, Mexar2 has reduced the mission planning
team’s workload for generating a feasible downlink plan by half
compared to the previous method.
Mexar2
Architecture and
Objective
• Preserving the existing
data life cycle.

• Taking other mission

features into account
during problem solving

• Preserving mission planner

control and responsibility
during problem solving.
 • Artificial intelligence is one of the enabling technologies for the
achievement of the various short- and long-term goals of the
international space agencies.
•The synergic effort of scientists from both fields is required to
effectively tackle the numerous open issues and challenges in this
Conclusion area.
•These applications go beyond the more classical automated
planning and scheduling field and include different mission
phases from conceiving the preliminary design to the mission
operation phase.
References
• Daniela Girimonte and Dario Izzo, “12 AI for Space Application” European Space Agency,
Advanced Concepts Team, ESTEC, EUI-ACT, Keplerlaan 1, 2201 AZ Noordwijk, The
Netherlands.
• Amedeo Cesta, Gabriella Cortellessa, Simone Fratini, and Angelo Oddi, Italian National
Research Council Michel Denis, Alessandro Donati, Nicola Policella, Erhard Rabenau, and
Jonathan Schulster, European Space Agency.
•M. Ai-Chang et al., “MAPGEN: Mixed-Initiative, Planning and Scheduling for the Mars,
Exploration Rover Mission,” IEEE Intelligent Systems.
• S.F. Smith, D.W. Hildum, and D.R. Crimm, “Comirem: An Intelligent Form for Resource,
Management,” IEEE Intelligent Systems.
Thank You