Towards Autonomic Management of NASA Missions

Increasingly, NASA relies on autonomous systems concepts, not only in the mission control centers on the ground, but also on spacecraft and on rovers and other assets on extraterrestrial bodies to achieve the full range of advanced mission objectives. While autonomy cost-effectively supports mission goals, autonomicity supports survivability of remote missions, especially when human tending is not feasible. Analysis of two prototype NASA agent-based systems and of a proposed mission involving numerous cooperating spacecraft illustrates how autonomous and autonomic system concepts may be brought to bear on future space missions