Executive Insight: AI Coming of Age: NASA Uses AI for Autonomous Space Exploration

At the end of the 20th Century, many organizations are rethinking the way they do business and are retooling with the ever-moving target of "new technologies". NASA is no exception. To reduce the cost of space-exploration missions while increasing their number, NASA began the revolutionary New Millennium Program (NMP) in early 1995. At the NMP's center is a push for self-guiding and self-regulating spacecraft. This will change the ground-control staff requirements from the hundreds required now for a major planetary science mission to a mere handful. The vision is to be able to "fire and forget" a whole series of missions that will go about their business of exploring, contacting home only when they find something of scientific interest or need help. Each spacecraft would manage its own travel, malfunctions, and much of the science.