Category: Artemis

Part 1: Artificial Intelligence and NASA’s First Robotic Lunar Rover

When NASA’s VIPER (short for Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) lands on the surface of the Moon on a mission to better understand the environment where NASA plans to send astronauts as part of the increasingly complex Artemis missions, its journey will be guided by the human ingenuity of its human team – and several key tools that use artificial intelligence. From helping the science team choose a landing site at the lunar mountain Mons Mouton, to planning out its path, the VIPER team has developed and used artificial intelligence algorithms to help assess risk and optimize decision making.

Artificial intelligence is a wide field, and the resulting techniques are still far from the self-aware robots of science fiction. Instead, the field contributes tools to help space missions deal with some of the uncertainties that come with planning and executing a real-time mission in a challenging, largely unexplored environment.

“AI allows VIPER to be more adaptable, flexible, resilient, and efficient,” said Edward Balaban, VIPER’s lead for strategic planning at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. “It’s a tool that allows us to use change as a strength.”

These tools don’t replace human input – NASA scientists design these systems in the first place, input the relevant data, and then use the AI’s outputs as a baseline for mission-related decisions. During VIPER mission operations, the team plans to use AI interactively to help map out various routes for the operations team members to choose from. This AI system is called SHERPA – the System Health Enabled Real-time Planning Advisor.

An artist’s concept of the completed design of NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER. VIPER will get a close-up view of the location and concentration of ice and other resources at the Moon’s South Pole, bringing us a significant step closer to NASA’s ultimate goal of a long-term presence on the Moon – making it possible to eventually explore Mars and beyond.
An artist’s concept of the completed design of NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER. VIPER will get a close-up view of the location and concentration of ice and other resources at the Moon’s South Pole, bringing us a significant step closer to NASA’s ultimate goal of a long-term presence on the Moon – making it possible to eventually explore Mars and beyond.

Traversing the Lunar Surface

The VIPER mission will run for about 100 days after landing on Mons Mouton near the lunar South Pole. Throughout its journey, VIPER will make many stops at several science stations – sites selected for their potential to achieve the mission’s science objectives. These objectives include understanding the factors that control the distribution of water on the surface of the Moon, understanding the delivery history of water to the Moon, determining the origin of lunar water and other , and determining how volatiles evolve over time after they are deposited on the surface. How the rover moves from one of these sites to the other, and where it can find a safe place, referred to as a “safe haven,” to pause while temporarily out of communications with Earth — without getting stuck in an extremely cold and dark shadow — is a complex question requiring analysis of vast amounts of data. Factors such as the Moon’s rugged terrain, VIPER’s needs and limits, and the potential of the various science stations all need to be considered.

SHERPA is able to process all these factors and present the VIPER team with several options while planning the rover’s traverse before mission operations. It can assess the various risks of different routes by running thousands of mission simulations, and even provide contingency branches for where to go if something changes or doesn’t go according to plan. But after launch, SHERPA’s work won’t be over – it’ll also be used for real-time, dynamic problem solving, giving the VIPER team potential solutions to adjust the rover’s traverse when it’s presented with new scientific or operational information.

A traverse from SHERPA isn’t just a one-and-done plan. The AI will provide a template that humans consider and revise. Any changes made are then run back through SHERPA to determine if it’s feasible or if there are any issues. Those revisions won’t be corrections in the traditional sense or enacted by default, but allow team members to make adjustments based on factors the AI may not be able to consider, such as constraints related to staffing for the team members driving the rover or operating the rover science instruments.

Another set of techniques from a subfield of AI known as temporal constraint planning helps VIPER make its to-do list, by essentially presenting an algorithm with the problem of scheduling a set of activities within a certain time.

Follow us here or @NASAAmes for a follow-up post with more details about how artificial intelligence supports NASA’s VIPER mission and efforts to explore the unknown in space for the benefit of humanity.

NASA Logo Installed on Lander for First Robotic Artemis Moon Flight 

Teams with Astrobotic install the NASA meatball decal on Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander on Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2023, at the Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Peregrine will launch onboard a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket targeted for no earlier than Dec. 24, 2023, from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Teams with Astrobotic install the NASA meatball decal on Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander on Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2023, at the Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Peregrine will launch onboard a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket targeted for no earlier than Dec. 24, 2023, from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The lander will carry a suite of NASA payloads to the Moon as part of the agency’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis program. Photo credit: NASA/Isaac Watson

Teams have installed the NASA meatball logo onboard Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander as part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis program ahead of its upcoming launch on Dec. 24 from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.   

Peregrine will carry NASA payloads to a mare – an ancient hardened lava flow – outside of the Gruithuisen Domes, a geologic enigma along the mare/highlands boundary on the northeast border of Oceanus Procellarum, or Ocean of Storms, the largest dark spot on the Moon. The payloads will investigate the lunar exosphere, thermal properties of the lunar regolith, hydrogen abundances in the soil at the landing site, magnetic fields, and conduct radiation environment monitoring.  

After arriving on Oct. 30 at the Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, teams with Astrobotic and ULA (United Launch Alliance) are finishing final preparations before they integrate Peregrine with ULA’s Vulcan rocket.  

While NASA is the primary customer purchasing lunar delivery services, CLPS vendors also work with other customers to send non-NASA payloads to the Moon. CLPS providers are responsible for managing their activities to ensure they are compliant with NASA schedule requirements. Astrobotic will keep the agency informed of the launch date, lunar landing date, and duration of lunar surface operations, as well as provide updates on the temperature the payloads will experience during transit to the Moon and at the lunar South Pole. 

A successful landing will help prove the CLPS model for commercial payload deliveries to the lunar surface. As a CLPS customer, NASA is investing in lower-cost methods of regular Moon deliveries and aims to be one many customers onboard CLPS flights. The robotic deliveries will help deliver agency science and technology demonstrations to the Moon for the benefit of all. 

Learn more about CLPS activities by following the Artemis blog, @NASAMoon and @NASAArtemis on Twitter, as well as the NASA Moon Facebook and Artemis Instagram accounts.