Researchers are studying how artificial intelligence (AI) can aid a Chinese mission to the solar system’s edge, SpaceNews reports. This mission faces tricky problems like unknown places, long distances, and slow communication with Earth.
A paper published in Journal of Deep Space Exploration in late 2024 says AI can help solve these issues.
The paper comes from experts at institutions including Beijing Institute of Technology, Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, and China’s Deep Space Exploration Laboratory.
The paper explains how AI can make spacecraft more independent. For example, AI can process data, which is sorting and handling information, right on the spacecraft. This cuts down on how much humans on Earth need to do. AI can also spot things on its own, like strange space events, and make decisions without waiting for Earth’s instructions. Plus, it can save power by using efficient computing.
Two AI-assisted Chinese spacecraft will travel 100 astronomical units
China wants to send two spacecraft to the heliosphere’s head and tail by 2049. The heliosphere is the bubble around the Sun made by solar wind. These spacecraft will travel 100 astronomical units, where one AU is the distance from Earth to the Sun. Later, they aim for 1,000 AU by the century’s end. They’ll use Jupiter flybys and might visit other planets or Kuiper Belt objects. Their goals include studying dust, space rays, and the solar system’s edge. They’ll carry tools like cameras, dust analyzers, and a magnetometer, which measures magnetic fields.
AI could clean data, removing mistakes before sending it home. It might also shrink data using autoencoders that keep only key details. This helps because communication takes a long time over huge distances. AI can also watch the spacecraft’s health, guessing when parts might break. It could steer the spacecraft too, adjusting paths on its own using reinforcement learning, a method where machines learn from their surroundings.
China has used AI in space before, like on the Chang’e-6 moon mission. NASA uses it too, such as on the Mars rover Perseverance. This paper shows AI’s growing role in space. Only a few missions, like Voyager and New Horizons, have reached the solar system’s edge. China’s AI plans could make its mission stand out.