Crew autonomy for deep space exploration: Lessons from the Antarctic Search for Meteorites

Future piloted missions to explore asteroids, Mars, and other targets beyond the Moon will experience strict limitations on communication between vehicles in space and control centers on Earth. These limitations will require crews to operate with greater autonomy than any past space mission has demonstrated. The Antarctic Search for Meteorites (ANSMET) project, which regularly sends small teams of researchers to remote parts of the southern continent, resembles a space mission in many ways but does not rely upon a control center. It provides a useful crew autonomy model for planners of future deep space exploration missions. In contrast to current space missions, ANSMET gives the crew the authority to adjust competing work priorities, task assignments, and daily schedules; allows the crew to be the primary monitor of mission progress; demands greater crew accountability for operational errors; requires the crew to make the most of limited communication bandwidth; adopts systems designed for simple operation and failure recovery; and grants the crew a leading role in the selection and stowage of their equipment.     

New Concepts in Collision Avoidance Logic

Airborne collision avoidance logic is being developed to take advantage of the accurate bearing measurements provided by the Enhanced TCAS II system. This system issues horizontal and vertical resolution advisories, and should give fewer unnecessary alarms than earlier systems. Design tradeoffs and new techniques are described for threat detection, modeling of potential escape maneuvers, and the selection of resolution advisories. Plans for further development and evaluation are described.