Exploring with PAM: Prospecting ANTS Missions for Solar System SurveysANTS (Autonomous Nano-Technology Swarm), a large (1000 member) swarm of nano to picoclass (10 to 1 kg) totally autonomous spacecraft, are being developed as a NASA advanced mission concept. ANTS, based on a hierarchical insect social order, use an evolvable, self-similar, hierarchical neural system in which individual spacecraft represent the highest level nodes. ANTS uses swarm intelligence attained through collective, cooperative interactions of the nodes at all levels of the system. At the highest levels this can take the form of cooperative, collective behavior among the individual spacecraft in a very large constellation. The ANTS neural architecture is designed for totally autonomous operation of complex systems including spacecraft constellations. The ANTS (Autonomous Nano Technology Swarm) concept has a number of possible applications. A version of ANTS designed for surveying and determining the resource potential of the asteroid belt, called PAM (Prospecting ANTS Mission), is examined here.
Document ID
20030111362
Acquisition Source
Headquarters
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Clark, P. E. (Engineering and Economics Research, Inc. Chantilly, VA, United States)
Rilee, M. L. (Engineering and Economics Research, Inc. Chantilly, VA, United States)
Curtis, S. A. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
IDRelationTitle20030110578Collected WorksLunar and Planetary Science XXXIV: Papers Presented at the Thirty-Fourth Lunar and Planetary Science Conference March 17–21, 2003