Swarm-Based Space Exploration

Description

Future space exploration missions will exploit intelligent swarm technologies, enabling spacecraft to go where manned missions and traditional spacecraft simply cannot.

Planned NASA missions will exploit new paradigms for space exploration, heavily focused on the (still) emerging technologies of autonomous and autonomic systems. Traditional missions, reliant on one large spacecraft, are being complemented by missions that involve several smaller spacecraft, operating in collaboration, analogous to swarms in nature.

This offers several advantages: the ability to send spacecraft to explore regions of space where traditional craft simply would be impractical, greater redundancy (and, consequently, greater protection of assets), and reduced costs and risk, to name but a few.