Expanding the capabilities of artificial intelligence, NASA scientists confirmed its Implementation in space.
Since ancient times, space has always enchanted human minds. It started with keeping records of movement of stars, moon, and change of weather. Eventually, advanced technologies made humans reach other planetary bodies like moon. To honour this exceptional achievement by astronomers in 1969, every 20th July is celebrated as Space exploration day.
Cut to the present era, a time where technologies have taken over, the most talked about thing being Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation. The AI has been a key domain explored by scientists for betterment of society. As scientists investigate deeper into the universe, AI gradually becomes crucial in tackling common challenges including communication issues and dataset control. Even, astronomers are planning for autonomous robotic exploration too. As NASA made a revolutionary findings through AI on Mars surface, we will discuss about upcoming missions using AI and robotics on this space exploration day.
Analysing the collected data is a tough and time taking process. Often, scientists remain confused with “where to find the actual data” to “how ti find it”! Amidst this, AI is showing ray of hope. For the first time ever, NASA has used AI for “real-time analysis of rock composition.”
Recently, I've been investigating a rock unlike any my team has seen so far on the planet. It could be among the oldest I've ever investigated – or the youngest. pic.twitter.com/Myd0c7ajo6
— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) July 15, 2024
Credit- @NASAPersevere X handle
The principal investigator, Abigail Allwood of JPL said “We use PIXL’s AI to home in on key science. Without it, you’d see a hint of something interesting in the data and then need to rescan the rock to study it more. This lets PIXL conclude without humans examining the data.”
Meanwhile, PIXL stands for Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry. It is an advanced instrument manufactured by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to examine the chemical composition and curate important information about minerals on Mars soil.
Use of AI for Commercial Services in Space: NASA has already designed a framework of upcoming space missions using AI. For that purpose, 9 USA-based companies are selected. The focused areas are “payload delivery, communications relay, surface imaging, and payload hosting,” as confirmed by NASA website. These AI-based studies will be implemented in upcoming Mars Exploration Program (MEP).
credit- @nasa X handle
CADRE Mission on Moon: CADRE stands for Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration. According to NASA website: “The rovers and associated hardware will be installed on a lander headed for the Moon’s Reiner Gamma region. They’ll spend the daylight hours of a lunar day – the equivalent of about 14 days on Earth – conducting experiments by autonomously exploring, mapping, and using ground-penetrating radar that will peer below the Moon’s surface.” The major aim of this mission is to understand if robotic spacecraft can successfully work together or not. The success of this mission will open the door for more autonomous space missions.
Meanwhile, the first-ever robotic moon rover or VIPER got abandoned due to budget overrun this week. It was initially planned to start operations by end of 2024.
credit - @NeuroscienceNew X handle
EELS Robot: To work efficiently on rough terrain, NASA is currently developing snake-shaped 14-foot long robot named Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor (EELS). These robot will be utilized on icy moons of Saturn’s Enceladus and Jupiter’s Europa for possible searchof extraterrestrial lives. Currently, it is under development stage.
Meanwhile, robots have already been used in international space station (ISS) for remote-controlled panoramic camera, technology demonstrations, and so on.
“We’re in an exciting new era of space exploration, with rapid growth of commercial interest and capabilities,” said Eric Ianson, director of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program.
