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From Present Surveying to Future Prospecting of the Asteroid BeltWe have applied a future mission architecture, the Autonomous Nano-Technology Swarm (ANTS), to a proposed mission for in situ survey, or prospecting, of the asteroid belt, the Prospecting Asteroid Mission (PAM) as part of a NASA 2003 Revolutionary Aerospace Concept (RASC) study. ANTS architecture builds on and advances recent trends in robotics, artificial intelligence, and materials processing to minimize costs and maximize effectiveness of space operations. PAM and other applications have been proposed for the survey of inaccessible, high surface area populations of great interest from the standpoint of resources and/or solar system origin. The ANTS architecture is inspired by the success of social insect colonies, a success based on the division of labor within the colonies in two key ways: 1) within their specialties, individual specialists generally outperform generalists, and 2) with sufficiently efficient social interaction and coordination, the group of specialists generally outperforms the group of generalists. Thus systems designed as ANTS are built from potentially very large numbers of highly autonomous, yet socially interactive, elements. The architecture is self-similar in that elements and sub-elements of the system may also be recursively structured as ANTS on scales ranging from microscopic to interplanetary distances. Here, we analyze requirements for the mission application at the low gravity target end of the spectrum, the Prospecting Asteroid Mission (PAM), and for specialized autonomous operations which would support this mission. ANTS as applied to PAM involves the activities of hundreds of individual specialist 'sciencecraft'. Most of them, called Workers, carry and operate eight to nine different scientific instruments, as listed in the table, including spectrometers, ranging and radio science devices, and imagers. The remaining specialists, Messenger/Rulers, provide communication and coordination functions among specialists operating autonomously as individuals, team members, and subswarms.
Document ID
20040062101
Acquisition Source
Johnson Space Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Clark, P. E.
(L-3 Communication Government Services, Inc. Chantilly, VA, United States)
Curtis, S. A.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Rilee, M.
(L-3 Communication Government Services, Inc. Chantilly, VA, United States)
Cheung, C.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Date Acquired
August 21, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2004
Publication Information
Publication: Lunar and Planetary Science XXXV: Asteroids, Meteors, Comets
Subject Category
Space Communications, Spacecraft Communications, Command And Tracking
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAS5-99189
CONTRACT_GRANT: ITMI-0299189EER
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.
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