In the early 1990s, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center started researching and developing autonomous and autonomic ground and spacecraft control systems for future NASA missions. This research started by experimenting with and developing expert systems to automate ground station software and reduce the number of people needed to control a spacecraft. This was followed by research into agent-based technology to develop autonomous ground c- trol and spacecraft. Research into this area has now evolved into using the concepts of autonomic systems to make future space missions self-managing and giving them a high degree of survivability in the harsh environments in which they operate. This book describes much of the results of this research. In addition, it aimstodiscusstheneededsoftwaretomakefutureNASAspacemissionsmore completelyautonomousandautonomic.Thecoreofthesoftwareforthesenew missions has been written for other applications or is being applied gradually in current missions, or is in current development. It is intended that this book should document how NASA missions are becoming more autonomous and autonomic and should point to the way of making future missions highly - tonomous and autonomic. What is not covered is the supporting hardware of these missions or the intricate software that implements orbit and at- tude determination, on-board resource allocation, or planning and scheduling (though we refer to these technologies and give references for the interested reader).

Part I Background.- Introduction.- Direction of New Space Missions.- Automation vs. Autonomy Systems.- Autonomy vs. Automation.- Autonomicity vs. Autonomy.- Using Autonomy to Reduce the Cost of Missions.- Multi-Spacecraft Missions.- Communications Delays.-Interaction of Spacecraft.- Adjustable and Mixed Autonomy.- Agent Technologies.- Summary.- Overview of Flight and Ground Software.- Ground System Software.-Planning and Scheduling.- Command Loading.- Science Schedule Execution.- Science Support Activity Execution.- Onboard Engineering Support Activities.- Downlinked Data Capture.- Performance Monitoring.- Fault Diagnosis.- Fault Correction.- Downlinked Data Archiving.- Engineering Data Analysis/Calibration.- Flight Software (FSW).- Attitude Determination and Control, Sensor Calibration, Orbit Determination, Propulsion.- Executive and Task Management, Time Management,Command Processing, Engineering and Science Data Storage and Handling,Communications.- Electrical Power Management, Thermal Management, SI Commanding, SI Data Processing.- Data Monitoring, Fault Detection and Correction.- Safemode.- Flight vs. Ground Implementation.- Flight Autonomy Evolution.- Reasons for Flight Autonomy.- Satisfying Mission Objectives.- Satisfying Spacecraft Infrastructure Needs.- Satisfying Operations Staff Needs.- Brief History of Existing Flight Autonomy Capabilities.- 1970s and Prior Spacecraft.- 1980s Spacecraft.- 1990s Spacecraft.- Current Spacecraft.- Flight Autonomy Capabilitiesof the Future.- Current Levels of Flight Automation/Autonomy.- Ground Autonomy Evolution.- Agent-based Flight Operations Associate.- A Basic Agent Model in AFLOAT.- Implementation Architecture For ALFOAT Prototype.- The Human Computer Interface in AFLOAT.- Inter-agent Communications in AFLOAT.- Lights Out Ground Operations System.-The LOGOS Architecture.- An Example Scenario.- Agent Concept Testbed.-Overview of the ACT Agent Architecture.- Architecture Components.- Dataflow Between Components.- ACT Operational Scenario.- Verification & Correctness.- Part II Technology.- Core Technologies for Developing Autonomous and Autonomic Systems.- Plan Technologies.- Planners.- Collaborative Languages.- Reasoning with Partial Information.- Fuzzy Logic.- Bayesian Reasoning.- Learning Technologies.- Artificial Neural Networks.- Genetic Algorithms and Programming.- Act Technologies.- Perception Technologies.- Sensing.- Image and Signal Processing.- Data Fusion.- Testing Technologies.- Software Simulation Environments.-Simulation Libraries.- Simulation Servers.- Networked Simualtion Environments.-Agent-based Spacecraft Autonomy Design Concepts.-High Level Design Features.- Remote Agent Functionality.- Spacecraft Enabling Technologies.- AI Enabling Methodologies.- Advantages ofRemote Agent Design.-Mission Types for Remote Agents.-Cooperative Autonomy.- Need for Cooperative Autonomy in Space Missions.- Quantities of Science Data.- Complexity of Scientific Instruments.- Increased Number of Spacecraft.- General Model of Cooperative Autonomy.- Autonomous Agents.- Agent Cooperation.- Cooperative Actions.- Spacecraft Mission Management.- Science Planning.- Mission Planning.- Sequence Planning.- Command Sequencer.- Science Data Processing.- Spacecraft Mission Viewed as Cooperative Autonomy.- Expanded Spacecraft Mission Model.- Analysis of Spacecraft Mission Model.- Improvements to Spacecraft Mission Execution.- An Example of Cooperative Autonomy: Virtual Platform.- Virtual Platforms under Current Environment.- Virtual Platforms with Advanced Automation.- Examples of Cooperative Autonomy.-The Mobile Robot Laboratory at Georgia Tech.- Cooperative Distributed Problem Solving Research Group at the University of Maine.- Knowledge Sharing Effort.- DIS and HLA.- IBM Aglets.-Autonomic Systems.- Overview of Autonomic Systems.- What are Autonomic Systems?.- Autonomic Properties.- Necessary Constructs.- Evolution versus Revolution.- State of the Art Research.- Machine Design.- Predic ...