Lunar Gateway
The AI assistant that was almost certain to appear in a space sci-fi story is finally coming to life. According to The Guardian, NASA is developing an interface similar to ChatGPT, allowing astronauts to use natural language to operate spacecraft and assist in experiments.
According to Dr. Larissa Suzuki at the IEEE conference, the goal of this system is to allow the spacecraft to communicate with the astronauts as well as the crew members. In addition to warning when there is a situation, it also allows the astronauts not to refer to complicated instructions. Some normalized spacecraft operations can be completed.
NASA plans to test the system for the first time on its Lunar Gateway lunar space station, and is also publicly soliciting more AI and machine learning technologies to assist the operation of the space station. Unlike the ISS, which is continuously stationed by astronauts, the Lunar Gateway may be unmanned for a long time. At this time, AI is needed to automatically control the appearance of the space station, manage the health of various systems, automatically control scientific research payloads, And arrange priority order for data transmission, etc. If there is no AI, NASA will inevitably plan a large number of manpower to monitor these systems from time to time, and it will not be able to issue immediate instructions in emergencies.
In space sci-fi stories, though, AI often ends up being the untrustworthy character. I just hope it doesn’t turn out like that in the real world.