Architecture for Space Trusted Responsive Autonomy (ASTRA)

Successfully executing complex missions in space such as Rendezvous, Proximity Operations, and Docking (RPOD), or In-space Servicing, Manufacturing and Assembly (ISAM), will require spacecraft that can interpret and react to their environment intelligently and in real time. To meet this technical challenge, Rogue Space Systems is proposing to develop an Architecture for Space Trusted Responsive Autonomy (ASTRA) based on well-established engineering principles of modularity, hierarchical decision making, and optimal control theory. ASTRA will integrate state-of-the-art guidance, navigation and control (GNC) algorithms with spacecraft survival, maintenance and homeostasis (SSMH) behaviors and space domain awareness (SDA) behaviors to create a flexible and responsive autonomy system. The primary goal of ASTRA is to create a framework with which spacecraft can autonomously select optimal sequences of actions to achieve mission objectives over the lifetime of the spacecraft. The core modular element of ASTRA is the behavior module. Behavior modules will have an objective expressed as a cost function and will use model predictive control to select optimal sequences of actions for the spacecraft to achieve that goal. Where practicable, behavior modules will execute well-established GNC algorithms to leverage and expand on the current SOTA in spacecraft control. Action sequences will be created and passed between behavior modules as behavior trees. Behavior modules will be arranged hierarchically by function, such that low level behaviors are responsible for basic survival and maintenance activities. High-level behaviors will integrate plans from the low-level behaviors to compose a unified action plan to be executed by the spacecraft. Behavior modules will be general purpose, reusable, and composable such that ASTRA can serve as an autonomy framework to support a wide range of spacecraft types and mission profiles.

NASA is planning on returning to the Moon, traveling to Mars, and increasing humanity’s footprint in space, while doing so on a limited budget. Meeting tomorrow’s challenges for the space community will necessitate the development of spacecraft with onboard situational awareness and autonomous decision-making capabilities. Robust autonomy technology will allow NASA’s complex missions to be successfully accomplished with minimal oversight, in communication denied environments. Autonomy is a general-purpose force multiplier for NASA missions. Autonomy has applicability for missions in space which involve dynamic situations, dynamic re-tasking, and close-range interactions between objects. This makes autonomy useful for commercial and defense activities including rendezvous, proximity operations and docking (RPOD), in space assembly and manufacturing (ISAM), and space domain awareness (SDA). Autonomy is a general-purpose force multiplier for a wide range of applications.

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