Related papers: Advancing the Scientific Frontier with Increasingl…
As Autonomous Systems (AS) become more ubiquitous in society, more responsible for our safety and our interaction with them more frequent, it is essential that they are trustworthy. Assessing the trustworthiness of AS is a mandatory…
As a direct result of ongoing efforts to detect more exoplanetary systems, an ever-increasing number of multiple-planet systems are being announced. But how many of these systems are truly what they seem? In many cases, such systems are…
Extraterrestrial technology may exist in the Solar System without our knowledge. This is because the vastness of space, combined with our limited searches to date, implies that any remote unpiloted exploratory probes of extraterrestrial…
We investigate the emerging prospect of self-sovereign agents -- AI systems that can economically sustain and extend their own operation without human involvement. Recent advances in large language models and agent frameworks have…
Space-science programs provide a wide range of application to a nation's key sectors of development: science-technology infrastructure, education, economy and national security. However, the cost of sustaining a space-science program has…
The growing ambition for space exploration demands robust autonomous systems that can operate in unstructured environments under extreme extraterrestrial conditions. The adoption of robot learning in this domain is severely hindered by the…
Safe, reliable navigation in extreme, unfamiliar terrain is required for future robotic space exploration missions. Recent generative-AI methods learn semantically aware navigation policies from large, cross-embodiment datasets, but offer…
While both society and astronomy have evolved greatly over the past fifty years, the academic institutions and incentives that shape our field have remained largely stagnant. As a result, the astronomical community is faced with several…
Data volumes from multiple sky surveys have grown from gigabytes into terabytes during the past decade, and will grow from terabytes into tens (or hundreds) of petabytes in the next decade. This exponential growth of new data both enables…
Autonomous systems will play an essential role in many applications across diverse domains including space, marine, air, field, road, and service robotics. They will assist us in our daily routines and perform dangerous, dirty and dull…
Support for early career astronomers who are just beginning to explore astronomy research is imperative to increase retention of diverse practitioners in the field. Since 2010, Astrobites has played an instrumental role in engaging members…
The recent growing interest in small solar system bodies such as asteroids and comets for scientific inspection, exploitation of resources, and planetary defense reasons is pushing the development of innovative engineering solutions to…
We are witnessing the rise of autonomous cars, which will likely revolutionize the way we travel. Arguably, the maritime domain lags behind, as ships operate on many more degrees of freedom (thus, a much larger search space): there is less…
Ensuring safety for spacecraft operations has become a paramount concern due to the proliferation of space debris and the saturation of valuable orbital regimes. In this regard, the Collision Avoidance Manoeuvre (CAM) has emerged as a…
Astrophysics facilities have been of tremendous importance for planetary science. The flagship space observatory Hubble Space Telescope has produced ground-breaking Solar System science, but when launched it did not even have the capability…
Recently, we witnessed how the synergy of small satellite technology and solar sailing propulsion enables new missions. Together, small satellites with lightweight instruments and solar sails offer affordable access to deep regions of the…
Progress in many domains increasingly benefits from our ability to view the systems through a computational lens, i.e., using computational abstractions of the domains; and our ability to acquire, share, integrate, and analyze disparate…
Mapping and navigation have gone hand-in-hand since long before robots existed. Maps are a key form of communication, allowing someone who has never been somewhere to nonetheless navigate that area successfully. In the context of…
The Science of Science (SoS) explores the mechanisms underlying scientific discovery, and offers valuable insights for enhancing scientific efficiency and fostering innovation. Traditional approaches often rely on simplistic assumptions and…
Current planetary rovers operate at traverse speeds of approximately 10 cm/s, fundamentally limiting exploration efficiency. This work presents integrated AI systems which significantly improve autonomy through three components: (i) the…