Spacecraft Autonomy at JPL

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has been involved in the incorporation of autonomous features in spacecraft design since the early 1960´s. The unique requirements of deep space missions, such as long communication delay times, have been the major driver for increasing autonomous capabilities. More recently, the Viking Orbiter mission at Mars, and the Voyager missions to Jupiter and Saturn, have demonstrated great strides in planetary spacecraft autonomy. These capabilities offer not only increased protection for the spacecraft, but significant reduction in ground support manpower dedicated to spacecraft health and welfare. JPL is currently developing additional autonomous capabilities for the Galileo mission to Jupiter, and is studying autonomy applications for advanced NASA planetary missions. JPL is also supporting the U.S. Air Force´s satellite autonomy program through a transfer of NASA planetary spacecraft experience, and a demonstration of autonomous health and welfare techniques on a selected Air Force satellite.