Transaction

j"1PuQa7K62MiKCtssSLKy1kh56WWU7MtUR5SETdate 1593808239urlLahttps://www.technologyreview.com/2020/07/03/1004788/spacecraft-spacefight-autonomous-software-ai/title(Are we making spacecraft too autonomous?imageLdhttps://wp.technologyreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/KSC-2014-2730orig_web.jpg?resize=1200,600hash@2bb21167a0fd589e60e6df9576e3e1f5934a6a549cf495c22cfec6ceba87183dsourceark.pagecommentMíHumans have value that cannot be replaced by software, and vice versa. How we employ an optimal balance is vital. "The engine comes to full power in just a few milliseconds. “There’s no way for a human to respond to something like that in time,” says CEO Franklin Chang Díaz, a former astronaut who flew on several space shuttle missions from 1986 to 2002. Algorithms in the control system are used to recognize changing conditions in the rocket as it’s moving through the startup sequence—and act accordingly. “We wouldn’t be able to do any of this well without software,” he says. But overrelying on software and autonomous systems in spaceflight creates new opportunities for problems to arise. That’s especially a concern for many of the space industry’s new contenders, who aren’t necessarily used to the kind of aggressive and comprehensive testing needed to weed out problems in software and are still trying to strike a good balance between automation and manual control."