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Completed TRL 5 (started at 3, targeting 5)
The main objective was to develop and test a pilot implementation of autonomous refueling for Gateway, but also applicable to other spacecraft. Autonomous refueling, or in general autonomous commodity management, is a capability that will be needed for spacecraft and on the surfaces of the Moon and Mars. In order to maximize the benefits to Gateway and similar in-space refueling needs, a Gateway refueling system design and breadboard was used as the pilot system. Also, the project implemented Gateway’s hierarchical distributed autonomy design architecture and concept of operations for autonomous refueling. Implementation was accomplished using SSC’s NASA Platform for Autonomous Systems (NPAS), which embodies a capability for on-board “thinking” system autonomy that helps overcome the severe challenges of high complexity reasoning and decision making that entails implementing autonomous behavior. On-board “thinking” autonomy will be foundational to implementing the autonomous systems and operations needed for Artemis and M2M.
This technology represents a significant advance on how autonomous behavior is implemented, and on how capable the autonomy implemented can be.
Currently autonomous behavior is implemented using a brute-force approach, where autonomy is scripted by considering every system element (switches in electrical systems, sensors, valves, etc.) and evaluating every possible failure mode and its effects along with every possible operational situation where the element is used; providing solutions for each situation. As complexity increases, the cases to consider increase exponentially, hence cases are missed, and the systems undoubtedly will fail in ways that were not predicted. This brute-force approach is used because new paradigms and technologies are not yet ready to address shortcomings of this approach. The technology used in this project is the NASA Platform for Autonomous Systems (NPAS), puts forth a new paradigm for on-board “thinking” whereby the autonomy uses a complete description of the application called “Digital Twin,” which “understands” concepts encompassed in the topology and behavior and functionality of the application system, and applies first principles and other models to analyze, draw conclusions, and make decisions on the state of the system, failure modes and effects, and actions to carry out the mission while mitigating anomalies.
In year 2 the project will implement all capabilities according to Gateway's refueling concept of operations, interfaces to autonomously control the reference FTS built at JSC and will validate operations for nominal and off-nominal cases. At the end of year 2, NAFTS will help address expectations from commercial modules and the VSM as well as advance the concept of operations for Gateway refueling, and generally for in-space refueling.
The benefit of advancing the technology for autonomous capabilities addresses gaps that need to be closed and demonstrates on a meaningful system and application: reliable and trusted autonomous refueling. The technology enables Artemis and M2M missions, which require reusable and evolutionary autonomous capabilities (thinking systems get better by augmenting knowledge along the life of the system). Furthermore, the implementations have a high code-reuse level, overcoming the costs and risks of one-time implementations that is currently the norm (one-time implementations that are done from scratch over and over again.) Maturation will be done by using the system being built by the Gateway risk reduction activity the "Refueling Breadboard." Since autonomous refueling must be supported by Gateway modules, opportunities exist to work with commercial partners developing the modules.
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