What is NASA’s Distributed Spacecraft Autonomy?

Software designed to give more spaceship autonomy could support a future where satellite swarms sail and complete scientific objectives with limited human intervention.

Astronauts living and working on the Moon and Mars will be based on satellites to provide services such as navigation, weather and communication relays. During the management of complex missions, the automation of satellite communications will allow explorers to focus on critical tasks instead of manually exploiting satellites.

Long -term space missions will require a team between earth systems and other planets. Satellites in orbit around the moon, March or other distant areas are faced with communication delays with ground operators who could limit the effectiveness of their missions.

The solution is in the Distributed Spacecraft Automy (DSA) project, directed by the NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley in California, which tests how shared autonomy through distributed spacecraft missions makes spacecraft more capable of searching and self -sufficient maintenance by making decisions and adapting to changes with a less human intervention.

The addition of autonomy to satellites makes them able to provide services without delay orders for operators on the ground. The distribution of autonomy on several satellites, operating like a swarm, gives the spacecraft a “shared brain” to achieve objectives that they could not achieve alone.

DSA software, built by NASA researchers, provides swarms a list of tasks and shares the separate perspective of each spacecraft – what it can observe, what its priorities are – and incorporates these perspectives into the best action plan for the whole swarm. This plan is supported by decision -making trees and mathematical models which help the swarm to decide the action to be taken once the order is finished, how to respond to a change or solve a problem.

The first demonstration in the DSA space began on board the Starling space swarm, a group of four small satellites, demonstrating various swarm technologies. Operating since July 2023, the Starling Mission continues to provide a test and validation platform for autonomous swarm operations. The swarm first used the DSA to optimize scientific observations, deciding what to observe without preprogrammed instructions. These autonomous observations led to measures which could have been missed if an operator should individually instruct each satellite.

The starring swarm has measured the plasma electrons between each spacecraft and the GPS satellites to capture changing phenomena in the earthly ionosphere – where the earth’s atmosphere meets space. The DSA software allowed the swarm to decide independently what to study and how to distribute the workload through the four spaceships.

Because each Starling spacecraft works as an independent member within the swarm, if a member of Swarm was unable to do his work, the other three members of Swarm could react and achieve the objectives of the mission.

The Starling 1.0 demonstration obtained several first, in particular the first fully distributed autonomous operation of several spacecrafts, the first use of space communications to independently share status information between several spacecrafts, the first use of a reactive planning entirely distributed on board a multiple space, and the first use of a general automated system on board a multiple multiple space, and the first use of planning Automated aboard a multiple space, and the first use of the automated system aboard a multiple space, and the first use of automated planning on board the spaceship vessel. These achievements have laid the bases of Starling 1.5+, a continuous continuation of the mission of Satellite Swarm using DSA.

After the DSA’s successful demonstration on Starling 1.0, the team began exploring additional opportunities to use the software to support the health and efficiency of the satellite swarm. DSA continuous tests on Starling’s extensive mission included the plexil (Interchange Language Execution Plan), a developed programming language of NASA designed for reliable and flexible automation of complex spacecraft operations.

Starling on board, the plexil application has demonstrated autonomous maintenance, allowing the swarm to manage normal spacecraft operations, correct problems or distribute software updates through the individual spacecraft.

Improved autonomy makes the functioning of the tension in the deep space possible – instead of requiring spacecraft to communicate between their distant location and the earth, which can take minutes or hours depending on the distance, the DSA software compatible with plexil gives the swarm the possibility of making decisions in collaboration to optimize their mission and reduce workloads.

To understand the scalability of the DSA, the team used ground flight computers to simulate a lunar swarm of a small virtual spacecraft. Computers have simulated a swarm that provides position, navigation and synchronization services on the Moon, similar to GPS services on Earth, which are based on a network of satellites to identify locations.

The DSA team has carried out nearly a hundred tests over two years, demonstrating swarms of different sizes to high and low lunar orbits. The lessons learned from these first tests made the basis of additional scalability study. The second series of tests, defined to start in 2026, will demonstrate even larger swarms, using flight computers which could then enter orbit with DSA software on board.

DSA orbital and simulated tests are a launch for increased use of autonomy distributed through space swarms. The development and prouvance of these technologies increase efficiency, decrease the costs and improve the capacities of NASA opening the door to tests of autonomous spaceships supporting missions to the moon, in Mars and beyond.

Milestones:

• October 2018: The development of the DSA project begins.
• April 2020: Lunar position, navigation and synchronization of synchronization (LPNT) The development of the simulation demonstration begins.
• July 2023: DSA launches on board the STARLING space vessels.
• March 2024: DSA’s experiences aboard Starling reach the necessary criteria for success.
• July 2024: The development of DSA software begins for the mission extension of Starling 1.5+.
• September 2024: The LPNT simulation demonstration has successfully ended.
• October 2024: The prolonged Mission of the DSA as part of Starling 1.5+ begins.

Partners:

NASA Ames leads the distributed autonomy of spaceships and Starling projects. The NASA development development program within the agency’s spatial technology mission was funded the DSA experience. The NASA Small Space Vessel Technology Program within the Mission of the Mission of Spatial Technology Finance and manages the Starling Mission and the DSA Project.

Learn more:

For researchers:

For the media:

Members of the information media interested in covering this subject should contact the NASA Ames editorial room.