4th National Conference on Science, Technology & Communication Skills

(NCSTCS2K21), 24-25th September 2021

Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Space Exploration

Swapnil Sinhaa, Faraj Equbalb, Sujata Kunduc and Shyamapriya Chowdhuryd

a,b,c,d
Department Of Information Technology
Narula Institute of Technology
81 Nilgunj Road, Agarpara, Kolkata - 700109

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Email of the corresponding author: swapnilsinha262@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Mankind has always been creative and such creative feature of human brain is the key to AI.
Advances and development in AI have allowed us to make progress in all kinds of manner
including deep space explorations. From designing missions on different planets to clearing
earth’s orbit of junk, we’ve come a long way in handling and advancing artificial intelligence.
As of May 2021, there have been six successful robotically operated mars rover missions and out
of six five were administered by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The
rovers were Sojourner (1997), Opportunity (2004), Spirit (2004), Curiosity (2012), And
Perseverance (2021). The sixth mission is Zhurong (2021), launched by the China National
Space Administration. Other than rovers there have been number of space missions by various
countries that were only possible because of AI.
Today, many companies, such as Google, Tesla and NASA, have already implemented AI in
search of new celestial bodies, alien life forms and easing the work of astronauts when they are
in space. AI helps in processing satellite images, helps in building personal assistance in space,
conducting system monitoring, in building Spatial telescopes which can play crucial role in
debugging the mystery of black holes and most importantly the role of AI in the development of
satellites and spacecraft.
The meaning of AI And Machine Learning in itself holds the key and hope of future space
explorations. In simple AI Refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines that have
been programmed to think like humans and copy their actions. AI aims to solve traditional
problems like planning, reasoning, knowledge representation, perception, and the ability to move
and manipulate objects on a given situation. AI can be utilized to understand the possible
outcomes and result of different scenarios and situations. It can build predictive models based on
sample data which can create pattern and can make conclusive decision without being explicitly
programmed to do so. We can further use another form of machine learning which is known as
Deep learning to copy human capacity of performing classification task directly from image,
sound data and text.
We can clearly see that our desire to explore the final frontier and space beyond that seems to be
growing and we will continue to plan ambitious missions to satisfy our inherent curiosity as well
as to improve the human lives on earth. In our endeavors, Artificial intelligence would be proved
path breaker in arena of space exploration over the next couple of year to assist new Deep space
missions and many more.

Innovativeness of the work: Use of AI in space explorations can play a crucial role. We can
look into deep space, search for Extraterrestrial life, can debug mysteries of black holes. In the
21st Century, we have AI enabled telescopes and star-gazers, that are working non-stop and
excellently, rejoicing at the possibilities of using Artificial Intelligence to rediscover the world
beyond our expectations. Wonder what Elon Musk might have to say.

Keywords: AI; Space; Rovers; Machine Learning; NASA.