Artificial Intelligence has rapidly emerged as an essential asset across varied industries, and its role in space exploration is significant. AI aids in analysing the data, offers predictive insights and autonomous navigation, and optimises mission operation and anomaly detection, all quickly. Space research organisations worldwide have been extensively leveraging the technology; ISRO is no exception. AI has been playing a significant role in the organisation's achievements over the years. 

India's saga of space exploration began on February 23rd 1962, with the inception of the Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) under the Government of India, Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), with Dr Vikram Sarabhai as the Chairman. INCOSPAR was later renamed the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on August 15th 1969. In 1972, ISRO was brought under the Space Commission and Department of Space. Headquartered in Bengaluru, ISRO Centres/Units are spread all over India. While we are set to celebrate the first National Space Day on August 23rd 2024, let us look at how ISRO has been leveraging AI in their recent projects.

The historic achievement

August 23rd marks a significant milestone in India's space journey. The country celebrates its first National Space Day, commemorating the success of India's first lunar mission. 

ISRO has used AI for various purposes. One of the milestone achievements is the role AI played in the launch of Chandrayaan-3. Unlike Chandrayaan-2, Pragyaan (the land rover) operates as a communicating agent for Chandrayaan-3 but without an orbiter. The AI integration with spacecraft enables the astronauts to communicate with Vikram lander regarding safe landing, navigation, & tracing resources. The specific use of motion technology with an advanced version of the rover guides the space team to take static images of the surface and send them to Earth for further testing. With Chandrayaan-3, India has demonstrated its dominant role in the growing global space market.

Aiding astronauts

The AI-powered sensors have played a crucial role in securing the lander's touchdown on the lunar surface. The technology assisted the Lander Hazard Detection and Avoidance Camera in anticipating the lunar topography for any kind of hurdles or obstacles that can bring risk during a soft landing. 

AI algorithms and deep learning models help astronauts have safe landings and timely decisions backed with insights. The information from the lunar surface about geological studies and other celestial facts needs deep exploration. The ML algorithm with AI ensures an insightful survey of the facts, leading to data-driven decisions. 

New Satellites

Earlier this year, ISRO announced its plan to launch a fleet of fifty new AI-powered satellites over five years. The satellites will interact with each other in space to gather geo-intelligence and beef up the country's border surveillance from the sky. 

Speaking at the IIT Bombay event, 'Techfest', ISRO chairman S Somanath said that the country's overall satellite fleet, with its current strength of 54, is insufficient for a country like India. With the capability of these new 'eyes in the sky', it was essential to improve the ability of satellites to detect changes to bring in more AI-related and data-driven approaches to analyse data, reduce data downloads and get only the information. He said these upgraded satellites will be able to interact with each other to gather intelligent data. If India can launch satellites at this scale, threats to the country can be better mitigated. 

Other projects

AI is an integral part of ISRO's various ongoing projects and programmes. The tech is used for developing launch vehicles, spacecraft operations, big data analytics, space robotics, space traffic management, etc. 

Space technology carries vast data archives that are hard to handle. But not all of them are worthy of a space mission. ML algorithms use historical space data with current ones to trace useful facts for further analysis. AI algorithms survey the quality of datasets and discard redundancies to save time and effort in data processing. With the availability of facts and insights, astronauts can enhance their success margins. 

Other sources:

A bibliometric study of research output of ISRO's space science and exploration missions