A process for introducing agent technology into Space missions

This paper discusses issues relating to introducing agent technology into satellite mission operations. Due to the high cost and long development time of satellite systems, scientists, commercial operators and the military are reluctant to use new and unproven technology, such as agent technology. We are in the process of developing methods and processes for introducing agent-based systems into future satellite missions while both drastically reducing the risk of mission failures and gaining the confidence and support of mission management and principal investigators (PI). We are doing this by designing and prototyping a robust mechanism to support dynamic agent-community evolution (e.g., agents adapting to community changes, agents joining a community or agents leaving a community). This dynamic capability of agents to join or leave a community or to adapt is necessary to achieve what we call "progressive autonomy." Progressive autonomy will allow us to gradually introduce autonomy and agent technology into missions and gain the confidence of PI without having to commit to the technology from the start. It will also allow us to introduce mission management and autonomy into existing missions via ground station autonomy by working alongside existing ground station software.