Space missions require the use of complex hardware, software and embedded systems, often with hard realtime requirements. Most missions involve significant degrees of autonomous behavior, often over significant periods of time. While missions typically have human monitors, many missions involve very little human intervention, and then often only in extreme circumstances. It has been argued that Space Exploration Systems should be autonomic (self-managing) as well as autonomous (self-governing), and that all autonomous systems should be autonomic by necessity. Indeed, the trend is in that direction in forthcoming Space missions. This technical session will present papers on research into Autonomicity and Autonomy for Space exploration missions. With Autonomy and Autonomicity becoming mainstream within computing through such initiatives as Autonomic Computing, this session aims to be of general interest to both the Space and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) communities.

Index Terms — Autonomy, Autonomicity, Self-Managing Systems, Space Exploration Systems

Organizers

Roy Sterritt, Member, IEEE; Michael G. Hinchey, Senior Member, IEEE