‘Love you to the moon and back’ - This term is commonly heard when expressing one’s feelings. Today, this term is being used by scientists and space researchers when asked about their opinion on Artificial Intelligence. Advances in AI have allowed us to make progress in all kinds of disciplines & this is not just related to our planet.

This week at ‘Conversations on AI’, we talk about AI being key for space exploration & our latest article captures stories of the impact that this multi-faceted technology can have outside our world.

NASA Is Training an AI to Detect Fresh Craters on Mars by Wired

Researchers at NASA used a machine-learning algorithm to discover fresh Martian craters for the first time. The AI discovered dozens of them hiding in image data from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and revealed a promising new way to study planets throughout our solar system

How was this accomplished - The AI was fed nearly 7,000 orbiter photos of Mars—some with previously discovered craters and others without any—to teach the algorithm how to detect a fresh strike.

Kudos to Kiri Wagstaff and her team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory!

Five ways artificial intelligence can help space exploration by The Conversation

Astronaut assistants: Researchers are working towards creating intelligent assistants to help astronauts. These AI-based assistants could be incredibly useful to space exploration

Mission design and planning: Researchers are working on the idea of a design engineering assistant to reduce the time required for initial mission design which otherwise takes many human work hours

Satellite data processing: AI for data processing can be used for the satellites themselves. In recent research, scientists tested various AI techniques for a remote satellite health monitoring system

Space debris: One of the biggest space challenges of the 21st century is how to tackle space debris. There are a few approaches using AI/ML models to overcome this issue

Navigation systems: In 2018, a team of researchers from NASA in collaboration with Intel developed an intelligent navigation system using AI to explore the planets

We are sure in the coming years, technology will assist space exploration in multiple other ways 

Beyond the Unknown: Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Space  by Analytics Insight

Artificial intelligence (AI) is creating a string of opportunities in space industry use-cases. As AI emerges as a popular theme in space exploration, it is also being deployed for many critical tasks including image processing, the discovery of exoplanets & alien life, satellite imagery, and space mining

Keeping aside the alien and UFO theories, AI will help create a safe & conducive environment for our researchers & scientists.

Solar images: Artificial Intelligence key to monitoring ‘hazardous space weather' by Daily Express

Solar Imaging and monitoring should be left to Artificial Intelligence, as per Tatiana Podladchikova, Assistant professor at the Skoltech Space Center (SSC), & Robert Jarolim, Research co-author from the University of Grazone have claimed. They say AI is now playing a pivotal role in keeping track of the Sun in a new bid to predict deadly solar eruptions.

This research has potentially opened-up an entirely new chapter for solar science & we can’t wait to see what is in store!

In the end....

Space exploration, creating a habitable planet out of Mars, space travel - There are multiple theories doing the rounds yet what matters is providing our space experts with the tools to tackle issues. AI is one such tool that will be extensively used to explore the unknown.

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