Autonomous Satellite Technologies

Technological advances in satellite design including a reduced electronics cost compounded with larger networks of satellites indicate the need for orbital autonomy. Our approach allows for the graceful migration of ground-based advisor software to an active remote agent in the orbital vehicle. We introduce other technologies to economically produce high-quality model-based expert system engines.Our approach evaluates the performance and economic advantages with this technology. We leverage an existing USAF/PL satellite program's existing simulator, ground station and engineering model flight computer to produce a high fidelity evaluation system. We compare various expert systems architectures with actual vehicle telemetry and mission tasking logs to estimate performance benefits.