Space engineers have been using AI in rovers for some time now — hence why today’s Mars explorers are able to pick a safe landing site and to drive around a region autonomously. But something they haven’t been able to do before now is to do science themselves, as most of that work is done by scientists on Earth who analyze data and point the rover toward targets they want to investigate.
Now, though, NASA’s Perseverance rover is taking the first steps toward autonomous science investigation on Mars. The rover has been testing out an AI capability for the last three years, which allows it to search for and identify particular minerals in Mars rocks. The system works using the rover’s PIXL instrument (Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry), a spectrometer that uses light to analyze what rocks are made of. The software, called adaptive sampling, looks though PIXL’s data and identifies minerals to be studied in more detail.
“We use PIXL’s AI to home in on key science,” explained PIXL’s principal investigator, Abigail Allwood of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in a statement. “Without it, you’d see a hint of something interesting in the data and then need to rescan the rock to study it more. This lets PIXL reach a conclusion without humans examining the data.”
The system runs on board the rover, with no intervention from Earth required. That means it saves on precious time, not only by choosing targets for the scientists but also because it doesn’t require lengthy communication times.
“The idea behind PIXL’s adaptive sampling is to help scientists find the needle within a haystack of data, freeing up time and energy for them to focus on other things,” said Peter Lawson, one of the developers of the software. “Ultimately, it helps us gather the best science more quickly.”
The AI system works by taking data from PIXL, then repositioning the instrument (which is mounted on Perseverance’s arm) using its camera so it can get in close to take a detailed reading without hitting the rock. You can see the system in action in a (kind of adorable) video of an Earth-based model of PIXL. The system will take a reading from one small patch of rock, and if it finds indications of minerals that are interesting to science, it can automatically collect more data on that area.
“PIXL is kind of a Swiss army knife in that it can be configured depending on what the scientists are looking for at a given time,” said David Thompson, who helped develop the software. “Mars is a great place to test out AI since we have regular communications each day, giving us a chance to make tweaks along the way.”
After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180
SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.
Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver
For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.
A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.