Autonomy and software technology on NASA's Deep Space One

Abstract

NASA's Deep Space One mission is unprecedented. Traditionally, NASA's space missions have been justified by science data return as the primary, if not the sole consideration. DS1 is the first NASA mission whose main purpose is to demonstrate the flight readiness of a set of technologies. The article shows how various AI related technologies are helping to launch NASA into the exciting new era of autonomous space vehicles. The article presents five autonomy-technology experiments and related software engineering activities on DS1 which are paving the way for the use of autonomy capabilities in future NASA missions: proving technologies, reducing perceived risk, and ameliorating first-user costs. NASA is entering the era of autonomous space systems, and the results achieved on DS1 are already leading to applications of the autonomy technologies described here, as well as inspiring additional autonomy-technology development work.