Flight Autonomy Evolution

Abstract

As new ideas surface for implementing advanced autonomous functions onboard spacecraft, the extent to which spacecraft already possess autonomous capability is often not fully appreciated. Many of these capabilities, in fact, have been in place for so long that they have become absorbed within the flight software (FSW) infrastructure, and as a result, typically are not even considered when FSW autonomy is discussed.

Another aspect of flight autonomy not often formally recognized is that the current state of flight autonomy is actually the product of an implicit process driven by the users and developers of FSW. Each autonomous function in place onboard NASA GSFC spacecraft has been developed either in response to the needs of the users of spacecraft, both the science users and the flight operations team (FOT), or in response to FSW development team insights into how their product can be made more useful to its customers. Because of the rightfully conservative nature of all three groups (scientists, FOT, and FSW developers), the pace of autonomy introduction tends to be measured, evolutionary, and targeted to very specific needs and objectives, rather than sweeping and revolutionary.

Also, the budget process, which typically targets funds to the performance of individual missions rather than allocating large research and development (R&D) funds for the development of generic functionality for future missions, tends to select against funding of major change and select for funding of incremental change. As mission budgets have steadily shrunk, funds available to mission project managers must be dedicated more to flight-proven autonomy functionality applicable to meeting immediate mission needs, as opposed to being used for risky, breakthrough autonomy concepts that might greatly reduce costs of both the current and other missions.