GALCIT Colloquium

JPL has a rich history of being trailblazers in space exploration to understand and explore Earth, our planetary neighbors, planets around other stars, and the mysteries of interstellar space. Future missions will be even bolder and groundbreaking, requiring autonomy to enable spacecraft to explore even more of our universe, venturing into unknown regions that are fraught with environmental uncertainty. Autonomy will maximize in situ actions and enable rapid reactions without relying on operators on Earth who are limited in situational awareness, may be out of contact, and are challenged by transmission delays. Eliminating a spacecraft's reliance on ground-based operators creates a new paradigm for future space exploration. This talk will cover some of the exciting autonomy technologies now under development at JPL including on-board closed-loop command execution, autonomous orbit determination, and health state awareness.  These technologies currently are being tested in space on an operational Earth-orbiting spacecraft to prove their readiness and to lay a path for infusion into future missions.