Automated spacecraft monitoring

Abstract

The spacecraft and ground systems monitoring processes at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory are described, focusing on the monitoring of spacecraft telecommunications subsystem health and telecommunications link status operations. A system based on artificial intelligence technology that seeks to overcome many of these limitations is described. The system, called the Spacecraft Health Automated Reasoning Prototype (SHARP), is designed to automate health and status analysis for multimission spacecraft and ground data systems operations. The use of SHARP during the Voyager encounter with Neptune is evaluated. It has proved to be effective for detecting and analyzing potential spacecraft and ground systems problems by performing real-time analysis of spacecraft and ground data systems engineering telemetry. Four principal areas where benefits from the use of SHARP and its descendants, namely, safety, workforce savings, reliability, and productivity, are discussed. >