Continuous Plan Management Support for Space Missions: the RAXEM Case

This paper describes RAXEM, an AI-based system developed to support human mission planners in the daily task to plan uplink commands for an interplanetary spacecraft. The intelligent environment of RAXEM has been designed to support the users in analyzing the problem and taking planning decisions as a result of an interactive process. The system combines different ingredients like integrating flexible automated algorithms, promoting user active participation during problem solving, and guaranteeing continuity of work practice. The paper touches upon all these aspects and comments on how a key factor for success has been the integration of intelligent technology to continuously support mission plan management.