Reasoning about actions for spacecraft redundancy management

We present an application of action description languages to spacecraft operational redundancy management problems. In these problems we concern ourselves with the identification and execution of operator actions that - in response to some loss of spacecraft functionality-regain equivalent functionality or reduce exposure to subsequent faults. Action languages allow one to represent such actions and reason about their effects on the domain. We describe the syntax and semantics of the action language L₀, as well as a general translation from domain descriptions of L₀ to logic programming. We demonstrate the feasibility of this approach using realistic complex domain models for the Space Shuttle orbiter´s orbital maneuvering system and reaction control system. Computational examples are given which demonstrate reasonable response times for typical queries