Risk-Bounded, Goal Driven AI for Human Planetary Exploration

This risk-bounded, goal-driven approach builds off academic research on autonomous robotic exploration. For instance, autonomous underwater vehicles have used similar approaches onboard to develop plans, avoid obstacles, and complete science tasks.​ Recognizing that surface operations on the Moon and Mars necessitates consideration of many sources of risk, e.g., life support, crater proximity, shadows, slope, comm. coverage, etc., there is a need to model risk and quantify its impact. The tool enables the use of risk as a resource in mission planning and decision support systems.

Goal of project is to mature and evolve risk-aware methods for Moon and Mars exploration traverse and timeline planning, giving operations better tools for reasoning over risk in EVAs, as well as improving reaction times when real-time planning is required in contingency scenarios.​ Recognizing that safe exploration on the Moon and Mars necessitates consideration of many sources of risk, there is a need to deeply integrate quantified risk in the mission planning process and actively reassess risk during execution.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.